I have always been intrigued by the quaintness of old houses. I remember coming upon an old house desolate and empty in a remote area. It was very nearly ready to fall in, sagging in the middle, and with most of the boards rotten and weather beaten. My first impression was one of sadness.

here in this dying house was enacted many human dramas. Here once people lived, and where people have lived there has dwelled also the emotions, the hopes, the joys, the dreams, the fears, and the human conflicts. Here was played out many small human tragedies and comedies. Here were human hearts capable of love and hate.

Imagine what sights the nearby trees beheld, the secrets they might impart could they talk, those silent listeners. Perhaps could they speak they could relate stories stranger than fiction from the real life of the people who lived here. But ours is never to know all the emotions which spawned and surged through this old house in the past. Ours is only to surmise and wonder about those bygone years when once this house was filled with life.

Once the hills around echoed with the sounds of human life, of children playing, of people talking, laughing, shouting, of people happy, of people angry, of people living. Time has removed every mark of human existence here. Nothing remains now except the old house and the thoughts surrounding it. Gone are the people who lived here with all their desires, ambitions, failures, disappointments, and goals. Here but stands an empty shell of a house filled with the ghosts of past memories. Today is no more for it, only yesterday.

Today vanished when those people forsook this old house. It then became a part of nature to be wrapped in vines and covered by trees, and hidden by undergrowth, and a part of that timeless pattern which we call nature. Soon its aged timbers shall fall unto the earth and mingle with the dust becoming nonexistant as a house or anything resembling a house, but just another part of that great whole called nature. It's decay shall feed the roots of many beautiful plants and shrubs.

Just as its living shelter sustained the life of its inhabitants, so its death shall sustain the life of its new inhabitants. Already the inside is filled the nests of birds, wasps, and bees, and is covered with spider webs. Many small animals have burrowed holes in the ground that once was its floor. It is their home now.

Ten years from now, a hundred, or maybe ten thousand years from now it may still be the home of plants and animals, or perhaps someone else may come and build a house here to begin the story all over again. Perhaps on the very same ground there will be human beings again laughing, talking, playing, working, living again.

They will never know that once a house dwelled here before them, and that once people lived out a part of their lives here. But one can be certain that the people who live here in the future will not be so much differnt in many respects. They will also have their loves, and hates, their hopes and joys and fears. They will have their goals, their beliefs, and the same needs for love and understanding, for satisfaction and reward, and for reason and meaning.

The most wonderful thing in all the earth is when two beings touch one another in mind and in heart. This delicate coming together of two separate souls gives to life meaning and a particular beauty. Their background may be different, and their outlook on life different somewhat, but it does not matter when their eyes meet and a power called love makes all things agree.

There is a force in Creation bringing together that which will spark new beauty and vitality into the world. The moon which is otherwise dark is made to shine by the light of the sun, so one being may be given brilliance by another. Without this powerful force darkness would cover the face of the deep.

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