As I was standing in the Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral with my mouth hanging open, another visitor popped out of a side entrance and paused – his mouth hanging open just as wide as mine. He met my eye, grinned and said, “Well, my gob has totally been smacked!”

We wandered from area to area marveling at every detail and deeply feeling the age of everything around us. I noticed the wear patterns on the stone stairs from hundreds of years of human feet slowly walking a groove in them. I noticed the candles lit for those who had passed on…an intimate action in such a grand and over the top place. Then I noticed the older gentleman sitting quietly alone in the chapel obviously mourning. What a contract of human experiences and expression cast across hundreds of years! The deaths, the births, the politics, the lives, and the voices all bouncing around inside an artistic and engineering achievement that seemed to celebrate everything we strive to be…but can’t quit meet.

Wow!