A friend took me to the most amazing place the other day, it's called the Augustian. Octavian Augustus built it to house his remains. When the Barbarians came, they trashed it along with everything else. The great Augustus, Rome's first true emperor--how could he have imagined that one day Rome, the whole world as far as he was concerned, would one day be in ruins?
It's one of the quietest and loneliest places in Rome. The city has grown up, around it over centuries. It feels like a precious wound--like a heartbreak you won't let go of because it hurts too good. We all want things to stay the same. Settle for living in misery because we're afraid of change, of things crumbling into ruins.
Then I looked around at this place--the chaos it's endured. The way it's been adapted, pillaged, burned, then found a way to build itself back up again and I was reassured. Maybe my life hasn't been so chaotic, it's just the world that is and the only real trap is getting attached to any of it.
Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.
Even in this eternal city, Augustian showed me that we must always be prepared for endless waves of transformation.
---Eat, Pray, Love
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