Sitting here this morning utterly speechless with the news story of a remarkable excavation of a room in Pompeii in southern Italy. In the autumn of 79AD , Mount Vesuvius erupted with molten rock and ash with 100,000 times the power and destructive energy of both of the two nuclear bomb attacks on the cities in Japan.
Looking at the beautiful painting, almost perfectly preserved, sent my mind swirling with images of people sitting round tables, laughing, sharing polite conversation and the finest food, when their lives were swiftly ended.
History tells us that the city of Pompeii was probably engulfed in 15 to 20 minutes. No escape for the people. This opulent room just discovered was in a part of the city where the very rich lived, and the amazing murals on the walls spoke to that wealth.
Why am I writing this? Coffee in hand, nice comfortable chair, looking forward to the plans for the day, I had, not once, thought for one second, about just how grateful I should be.
We have many occasions each day, if mindful, to feel that gratitude……don’t be like me, that it took a volcanic eruption to invoke that gratitude.
ellenblose.blog 