The confinement of the close set buildings and crowded shops opened into a busy plaza, bustling with energy and motion as tourists haggled with merchants and sought the perfect item to immortalize the visit. A plain, unadorned wall with a simple barred window drew my eye. The contrast between the hectic Sarajavo streets and this unassuming wall almost beckoned for me to draw near. I couldn’t resist the urge and found myself standing transfixed at the metal grate.
It felt as though I was in another world. The bustle of the city was silenced as I watched, not moving, almost not breathing. The sun was growing long in the sky and I could see the lines of afternoon shadow. They lengthened on the ground, extended from the edges of the protective wall to drape across the courtyard. The cobblestoned courtyard had a central, airy strucuture that appeared as though someone had placed giant fairy birdcage on a blue pedestal. The vibrantly colored tile was broken up by the simple faucets that ran the circumference of the building. The trickling sound of water, while the devoted washed their hands and feet, drifted lazily through the afternoon air as lightly as music. I could see across the courtyard to where people softly drifted in ones and twos, then lay prostrate and knelt, bowing to a god that I could not see. Yet, I could feel what was unseen. It was a tangible feeling of peace, of God.
The humble muttered prayers that echoed to my ears seemed so separate from the hurried pace of the market and the outside world. The heavy metal that blocked my view was no barrier to the sense of peace that was centered in this place. It was as though the prayers of the faithful drew this place closer to the heart of God and brought an otherworldly calm in the heart of a scarred and ravaged city. Even in a place so strange and separate from my own culture, God existed. He was there, with the same quiet, the same calm and joy.
A shock filled my soul as I was abruptly jerked from my thoughts. My friend had pulled me away to see a trinket that she wanted to buy, yet I could still feel the pull, the desire to return, to have the feeling of God again. So we left the nearly obscured window in the wall to wander the dimly lit alleys and find the one thing we thought we were looking for.