Not all the cultural differences in Germany have left me staring at something, trying to figure out how to adult again like last week’s Counter Space Adventure. Some of them, like the church bells, pull me in and encourage me listen and breathe at the end of each day.

I’m sure the bigger cities in Germany are still big cities with all their traffic and business. We flew into Frankfurt, and I blurrily remember it, but most of our exposure to the German culture has been in the villages. They’re built into the rolling hills and crop up out of the forests like hamlets from ages past. 

And every single one of them has a church that beautifully tolls the passing of the day with actual bells. I wondered at first if this would bother me. Some of the churches toll every hour. Some four times a day. The one in our village, however, tolls at noon and 6 p.m and randomly at other times that I haven’t been able to figure out. I don’t always catch the noon bells as they’re not actually loud enough to be heard without the windows open. 

The 6 p.m. ones though, I try to open a window for. There’s something almost magical when the bells start ringing over the hills. It filters through the vented windows and into my kitchen and sometimes I close my eyes just to listen to their song. It’s a beautiful, melodic way to end the working day. A moment to breathe and thank God for lovely reminders to enjoy the beauty around us. 

In a world that replaces bells with recordings for simplicity’s sake, the German’s keep the old bells of their churches and allow them to sing a call to rest. It’s one of the things I’m coming to enjoy most about the German culture. 

Blessings,

Jennifer

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