Cedar Hills, Texas is flat as far as the eye can see. Endless fields of green and stretches of highway are the only landmarks. Hot dry air limits the urge to explore. Trapped in an unknown part of the world presents a new perspective.

Meet a local philosopher and jewelry maker, Bill Watkins. In truth, he and his wife own Paradise Cowboy, a gift shop with treasures from the region and around the world. In the course of asking about the two Roman coins of Alexander the Great with Egyptian symbols on the back, he said, “everything in Cedar Hills is temporary”.

Holding the two ancient coins thousands of years old – I had to pause. He continues with a short story of his visit to Charlottesville, Virginia and Washington, DC years before and his experience of the permanence and weight of history. Then he compares it to Cedar Hills, a small rural agricultural town with a history of no more than 150 years, with tornados consistently clearing out any fixtures of permanence. A sense of freedom is present.

Imagine if we approach all problems with a sense of lightness, freedom of history and appreciation for nature’s presence and power.