Weeping for the Ruined House
On his first visit to Yerushalayim, Rav Gershon wrote that the sight of grand buildings raised by others, beside the ruin of the Beis HaMikdash, left him weeping.
After his first visit to Yerushalayim, Rav Gershon described to the Baal Shem Tov what he had felt there. He saw the many fine and splendid buildings that the Muslims and Christians had put up, while the place of the Beis HaMikdash lay in ruins, and he wept and was deeply pained. For him the Churban was not a distant memory but a present sorrow, felt on the very ground of the city. His letter was preserved by Rav Meir Teomim, and Rav Meir's son, the Pri Megadim, mentions the letter in his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch and explains it.
Source: Letter to the Baal Shem Tov on his first visit to Yerushalayim, as published in Rav Meir Teomim, Meiras Einayim; cited by the Pri Megadim
It is easy to admire what stands in front of us and forget what is absent. Today, pick one thing in your life that is not as it should be, whether a strained friendship, a neglected prayer or a hope not yet met. Do not rush to fix it or explain it away. Spend a few quiet minutes feeling that it is missing, and say one honest sentence to Hashem about it. That sorrow, held gently, is where rebuilding begins.