Reflections From A Rooftop

Where do you go when you’re lonely? Where do you go when you’re happy? Where do you go when you pray? Where do you go when you want to celebrate? Where do you go when you want to be by your lonesome? Where do you go when you want to be alone with your significant other? Where else but to your favorite place.

Each of us has a favorite place – perhaps a favorite bedroom, a favorite spot in the workplace, a favorite shop, a favorite church, a favorite cinema, a favorite garden, a favorite bathroom. It is a place where even just being there gives us a sense of completeness. It is a place where we can be our true selves. It is a place we want to take our friends to. It is a place we go to when we need comfort and security. In other words, it is a personal place of refuge.

My favorite place here in our house is the rooftop. I often go there to watch the afternoon sun as it dives behind the Italian mountains. Not only that it provides me with an uninterrupted view of the sunset, the rooftop also allows me to be enveloped by the fresh early evening breeze. It is just a floor above me, and like any favorite place, it has also become a place of refuge for me. I go there to compose poems, to sing songs, to exercise, to play, to study, to people-watch, to dance, to view the landscape below, and to write my diary. In fact, I am now on the rooftop as I encode these words on my laptop. I also go to the rooftop when I want to be alone. Although sometimes I also go there when I want to be with my confreres. I also go there just to look at the Eastern horizon – because that’s where my beloved country is, that’s where my loved ones are, that’s where you are.

I also go there to pray, to meditate, and to say my thanksgiving to God. The rooftop has also become a kind of sanctuary for me, a kind of personal holy space. I have so many things to pray for and on the rooftop I lift them all up to God. When I remember the problems and concerns of the people who are dear to me and those of my own, I also lift them up to God. Sometimes I just ask God to help me remember all the simple and beautiful things in life so that I could name them, savor them, and be thankful to Him.

God has two dwellings: one in heaven and one in a thankful heart.

They say that God has two dwellings: one in heaven and one in a thankful heart. Now let me ask you: how many times did you stop today to say thanks to God?

I myself have often forgotten to thank God, especially for the little surprises and wonders he has done for me. It is not easy but I have always tried to the find the good in every situation and concentrate on something to be thankful for. In my experience, once I am able to express gratitude to God in prayer and to other people in word and action, I always feel that my soul is nourished a bit. Let us make it habit to say thanks to God and to people. Let us learn to treasure each minute, each gift God gives us each day for we will never know how many we are going to be given. Let us appreciate our life and be so much thankful for it. I believe there is calmness and beauty and fulfillment in a life lived in gratitude.