Feeling Connected

I don't get this feeling when I tread within my own country's borders. Surely, peoples existed long ago who walked these very same trails I frequent now. But I am disconnected from them. In contrast, I find connections to all who came before me when I visit England and Wales. Their voices I seem to hear loudly within me, not muted by time. I heard them everywhere I was.

Within centuries-old churches

In fallen-down castles

Where babies were baptized 1,000 years ago

On rocks overlooking coves used by pirates 800 years ago

At sunsets seen by many before at that precise location

Within the mysteries

In the many surviving ancient stone walls separating fields

In those fields where sheep still graze

In cliffs housing birds for as long as birds and cliffs have existed

On rocky cliffs

In the hills amidst the mist