The ancient calibrates our modern bravado with silence. We may shout from the highest hills that the latest technology we will deliver next week is going to change the world. Then we visit a site that is two millennia and wisdom demands our tongues be stilled. I recently visited a  national gallery exhibit of bronze sculptures that were over two thousand years old. I left in humbled awe after getting close to these pieces that have survived the reigns of great civilized nations and wars fought between great peoples that built the foundation and wisdom of the world we enjoy today. The pursuit of riches, power and immortality drive each of us and the ancients remind us that the method might be new, but the pursuit is common among mankind. This reflective realization allows pause for recognition of what is most important. Family and friends matter. Bettering the world around us matters. We expend our lives to care and provide for those we have been blessed to be near. Even enemies of war or business can become friends as battle wounds are cauterize by time or drowned in a shared drink of spirits. Spending time in the shadow of ancient rock formations, stones, forests, books, temples or traditions allow for the appreciation of the lives that have gone before and our legacy we will leave behind. 

What is your practice of revisiting things from the past? What influence did it have on your life? How did this interaction calibrate your thinking? What was the lasting effect? Do you have a favorite place/item you frequent to gain this perspective? What is an ancient thing you want to see/visit in your lifetime?