passing by

Passing by houses which were occupied by people we knew on our way to a wedding, we thought about how they seemed to have belonged to the owners at the time.  In our minds we could see those old owners coming and going, gardening, cleaning, entertaining, drawing the curtains and going to bed there feeling that that very house and place was theirs.  We feel like that about our house but in fact, the houses outlive us so it would be much more accurate to say that they own us!  Meditating on the unchanging amid the changing world alters your vision of how things are; they all seem much less convincing but also much more beautiful in their own right.  It makes me realise how I take things for granted, seldom think how blessed I am, don't you find that too?
See this house, it is called Houghton Hall; someone once thought they owned it and then they died and it belonged to someone else and so on and so on until today when someone else has all the work of owning it.  I think it has owned the people and by its huge and imposing being has had all of them working hard to keep it alive!

Houghton Hall is not my house! Someone thought this was their house once and then it passed on to someone else.