I Stood Where Prophets and Kings Walked: An Experience Turned Poem

Standing in Wadi Rum, Choosing How to Live

Nothing quite prepares you for Wadi Rum. The red sand stretches out further than feels reasonable, the rock formations rise up like they've been waiting there on purpose, and the silence has a weight to it that most places simply don't have. It's the kind of landscape that stops conversation, not because there's nothing to say, but because there's suddenly too much to take in.

Standing out there, I found myself thinking less about the view and more about what to do with it. Not in a grand, life altering way, just a quiet, practical one. How do you actually spend a moment like this? The answer that settled in was simple: live it well. Show up for the people around me, take care of myself, stay grateful for the fact that I'm even here, and when the moment allows for it, and in Wadi Rum, it usually does, have fun. Real fun.

It's the kind of place that has a way of making you slow down and actually notice your own life while you're living it.

Where Prophets, Kings and Pilgrims Once Walked

Part of what made Wadi Rum, and Jordan more broadly, hit differently was the sheer weight of who's walked through it before me. This isn't just scenery, it's a corridor that history has moved through for thousands of years. Peasants and prophets, merchants and pilgrims, sailors, soldiers, dreamers and conquerors have all crossed these same mountains, caves and valleys long before I arrived with a camera.

Abraham is said to have stood beneath these exact Wadi Rum skies, counting stars and holding onto a promise bigger than himself. Centuries later, Jesus moved through this same region with his disciples, teaching about love, humility and a kingdom that had less to do with land and more to do with how people treated each other. Later still, Saladin swept through with power, ambition and strategy, reshaping the map as he went.

Three completely different men, three completely different chapters of history, and the same desert beneath all of their feet, the same one I stood on centuries later.

Ancient Ruins, Endless Rhythm

From Wadi Rum, my trip carried on through the Dead Sea, Amman, Mount Nebo, Jerash, Petra and Madaba, each one a reminder that empires rise and eventually fall. Civilizations that once felt permanent flourished, faded, and left behind little more than ruins and the outline of what they used to be. Walking through Petra's carved facades or standing at Mount Nebo looking out over the land Moses is said to have seen but never entered, it's hard not to feel the scale of everything that's come before.

And yet, through all of it, the desert is still there. The sea is still there. The mountains haven't moved an inch, and the simple rhythm of everyday life, waking up, eating, working, resting, has quietly outlasted every empire that ever tried to claim the land.

Faced with that kind of timeline, it would be easy to feel small in a discouraging way. Instead, I came away with the opposite feeling: that being small in the face of all that history is exactly what makes a single moment worth paying attention to. There's nothing that needs to be conquered, no legacy that needs forcing into existence, just the moment itself, fully lived. The light, the colour, the laughter, the food, the freedom, the faces, the conversations, the noise, and then, eventually, the quiet.

By the end of the trip, I had put all of it, Wadi Rum, the history, the ruins, the quiet, into words.

The Poem

I have this one beautiful moment in time to be here. What exactly should I do with it? I can dream it, design it and live it. I can live my best life. I can love, I can care for my health. I can show gratitude and be consistently grateful for the life that I have. I can pursue friendship with the best intentions. And I can have fun, maximum fun.

Standing here in Jordan, I become aware that this place has held countless moments like mine. People have walked these mountains, caves, valleys, deserts for thousands of years. Peasants, prophets, men & merchants, pirates & pilgrims, sailors & soldiers and dreamers & destroyers.

Abraham once walked under the same skies of Wadi Rum, counting the stars & trusting in a promise bigger than himself.

Jesus walked these lands with Judas & the eleven behind him, speaking about love, humility, the brotherhood of man & the kingdom within.

Centuries later, Saladin moved through this region with power, pomp & strategy, shaping the course of history.

Dead Sea, Amman, Mount Nebo, Jerash, Petra, Madaba, empires have risen and fallen, civilizations flourished, faded and leaving us these remnants, ancient ruins. Yet the desert, sea, mountains & the simple rhythm of life remains.

Oh, how small my moment in history & how precious it truly is.

It is enough to live well in the moment. I do not need to conquer anything or leave monumental legacies.

I will live in this moment I've been given. I will notice the light, the color, the laughter, the brotherhood, the food, the freedom, the faces, the conversations, the noise and then the quiet