We awake excited about a tour of the ancient city of Rome Italy. We are anxious to see the Coliseum and the Pantheon today and we set out in anxious anticipation. The day is sunny and bright. Our entire tour of Paris and Italy has been sunny with great weather for almost every day. We take a taxi to the Coliseum and then must walk the last few blocks due to the streets being closed to cars. Pedestrians flood the streets, all walking in the direction of the famous Coliseum.

As the Coliseum comes into view, we are overwhelmed (again) by its pure size. It is gigantic. We walk past a few ruins on the way to the giant stadium and our eyes dart to the peripheral areas, eager to see all that surrounds us. We try to take it all in. It overwhelms the senses. You really can’t grasp the whole picture in mere photographs. It is a panoramic buffet of views. There are lots of people here, but I think that it is less crowded then when we last visited 10 years ago. We near the large structure and fall into a medium size line to wait to purchase tickets to see the inside.
The exchange rate is about 76 Euros for every 100 dollars, so, better than it has been on a few of our trips, but expensive nonetheless. The tickets to enter the Coliseum are about 12 Euros a piece. We buy three tickets and walk through the entrance to meander along the halls that have stood for hundreds of years.
As we walk through the walks, I envision kings and queens that have walked these same steps. I feel like I am touching history, viewing into a time machine that is showing me a far distant past. We have ventured far into the past to see the famed sites. The grandiosity of the size of the structures makes us feel small in comparison. Maybe the men of old were 17 feet tall, their archways stand for hundreds of feet and some of the pillars that we walked by seemed to be 3-5 foot in diameter. It is like walking through the land that Jack in the beanstalk entered upon when he climbed the beanstalk. It feels like we are walking where giants have lived.
We look down upon what was the floor of the Coliseum. The stage floor has worn away and we can see the maze of cages that sat beneath the floor. We peer down into the crevices and, in my mind, I can see warriors and lions trapped behind the walls, eagerly waiting to fight in the giant stadium.

Once around the giant loop we climb the stairs to get an even higher view. The steps are tall and very worn. The stone is slippery from years and years of feet prodding past. I hold onto the iron railing and pull myself up the stairs to the platform above. There are definitely some photo opportunities here. We stop for pictures and saunter around, soaking up both the sun and the view.
We are in the Coliseum in Rome. It is a bit surreal. We are walking on something that I have read about and seen pictures of my whole life. The history books come alive as I feel the stadium beneath my feet. History class would have been so much more interesting had I walked here prior to trying to read about the events of the past. The words in the books seemed lifeless and lacking meaning until you see the ruins and walk the path.
We climb down the steps and walk to the back of the building to get a few family pictures.
I suddenly miss my daughter terribly, thinking about the trip her and I experienced here together and realizing that she is grown, and now a mother herself. I mourn those years, thankful for them, yet missing the days of her childhood and the long years I spent daily interacting with my amazing daughter. Someday I will look back on these days, longing for Caleb’s childhood and missing our daily interactions. A lump forms in my throat and it is as if I am in a time machine and I can see the date being set forward and the world turning right before my eyes.

Life is short. We make a long list of “Somedays” and we find ourselves living few of our hopes and dreams. We get caught up in ‘today’ and we don’t make ‘tomorrow’ what it should be. We believe that there are hundreds of tomorrows, and there may not be. I think on all this as I am in the midst of writing my next book, meant to inspire YOU to live the life you are dreaming of. I wonder what motivating words I can put down on paper to spark light in the lives of so many living in monotony and mundane existences. I pray, seeking guidance, as I sit on the steps of the Coliseum and think about the next year of my life. Where will it take me, where will I end up one year from now, what adventures await me?
What adventures are awaiting you? Where do your dreams take you? What would it take for you to plan to ‘live’ one of your dreams? I challenge you to dig deep, to read and understand your innermost thoughts and to find within yourself the dreams that you have left lay stagnant.
