it's a new day

"I am a part of all that i have met."
Alfred Lord Tennyson

there are certain places that follow me around, some that i remember, some that catch me by surprise.
i saw a cathedral today when we were in Durban and musing aloud i mentioned that i would like to look at it. adam promptly checked his watched and said that we had enough time and that he would go with me so we quickly crossed the street and figured out how to get inside. the cathedral was surrounded by market stalls and the taxi station- the busiest areas of the city filled with the poorest people and that garbage that surrounds poverty.
so i was caught up in the crowd, swept along and concerned with not losing adam or myself in the crowd and smell and noise that africa creates when she is congested. and i totally forgot to prepare myself for what would happen next. we stepped into the courtyard and the difference was immediately tangible- i could feel the memory creep into the edge of my brain as i looked at the graves and the latin inscriptions. but i was not prepared to enter. as soon as i took the first marble step into the room and looked up my summer in europe smacked me in the face. i stopped. i couldn't walk any further.
i clasped my hands and realized adam was right behind me and mumbling something about knowing this place, this tile, this marble, this soaring vaulted ceiling, i stepped aside.
i can't equate it to anything but the feeling of standing outside of your house, looking in the window after a long time away.
i'd forgotten the quiet of religion that has marched steadily on for centuries, the strength and smooth of stone, the hush of years of reverence, and the calm of dusty saints and careful worship.
there is a cathedral inside of my chest. i'd just forgotten it was there until today.