Missed Opportunity

It is warm here today. People vie for space in the shade as the heat baked benches remain vacant and bleached by the sun. How quickly the scene has changed. Just last week the opposite was occurring with the sunny benches fully occupied and the shades over the coffee shops retracted back into their holders. Today it is the battle for shade.

The crowds scurry by, waves and waves of them following the tour guide with her little flag on a pole. How unaware most of you are of the current that lies within this historic place. You hear the talks and read the guide books but fail to stop and connect to the flow of energy that encapsulates the rich spirit of this elegant elder city. You don’t stop to hear the ancient footsteps of the peasants, the fishermen, the soldiers, or the trumpets heralding the emperor’s arrival or the echoes of the songs that were sung here so many centuries ago. You don’t stop to sense the wisdom that emanates from these walls. These Roman walls that have witnessed the joy of celebration, the horror of battle and the anguish of heartache and loss. These walls that have also witnessed young lovers, meeting in secret in their recesses, to steal a forbidden kiss. These walls, these magnificant ancient walls.

How sad the missed opportunity to really see, hear and sense what this magical place embodies with all its historic wonder and glory.

I wonder how often in my life have I hurried by and missed the actual essence of places as they presented themselves before me. I wonder and I feel sad thinking of what I may have missed.