As Leo and I drive along country roads I am struck by the ruins I see. Some are removed to make way for  new generations to come. Some are left to remind all of a previous life.  When I look at them I see a candle in a window signaling warmth and family….a home. It may not have stood the test of time, but who or what does? Now, they are considered ‘ruins’ or derelict or worse, famine homes. Left by a family who’s choices were small. Stay and starve or leave and go to the unknown in hopes of a life. Not a new life or a better life, just life.

Instead of a roof there are trees, giving shelter to birds and small animals. Instead of windows, you can look inside to it’s soul. There are flowers, daffodils right now, offering promise of new life.  There is beauty in ruins. Previous generations made us possible, they lived in a time, we can only imagine. They live on in all of us. We can mourn them, but we must live on. Be the trees, soul and flowers of the future.