I’m eating my lunch in a graveyard.
Human seeds have been planted in neat little rows. Stone stakes label the crop.
~ N.D. Wilson in Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl
I like cemeteries.
The names, the epitaphs, the iconography, the quiet.
I like the sadness, the melancholy, the stab of pain, the bracing reality of death.
I hate death.
I hate the ripping and tearing, the long separation, the disruption, the destruction.
Death is my enemy.
I whisper John Donne’s words, “Death, thou shalt die.”
But.
I believe.
Weekly, we quote the Apostle’s Creed:
I believe in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
Grief for Little Charlie. Grief for Little Charlie’s mom.
So personal: My Mother. Our Son.
A hollow emptiness.
Spring time is perhaps the best time to visit a cemetery.
Spring’s blossoms sing an ancient melody ~
after death comes the resurrection.
Our favorite epitaph.
Your life in five words?
A Living Pencil 
I wonder who James Rumley was. Moving epitaph certainly. And I wonder where this graveyard is. Incidentally, Jurgen Moltmann points out that whereas graveyards used to be in the center of a community (often at the church) they are now located on the outskirts of towns and cities. As if death can be relegated to the margins of life.
P.S. The gospel in a nutshell: “Receive yourself and your world as a new creation.”(Miroslav Volf)
@jackug – My thoughts ran along the same lines. I love the idea of the church being the caretakers of graveyards. Actually the rise in cremation is making graveyards obsolete.PS – we are vacationing on the coast of North Carolina. Beaufort, where this graveyard is, was settled in 1709.
Ohh 🙂 Vacation. Like. Is it a swimming beach? I like the quotation from N.D. Wilson too. Do not know his/her work. Can you enlighten? @magistramater –
Did you leave a stone after your visit?Just learned myself about this Jewish custom…Happy Easter ~
I can only think of nonsense this morning for my epitaph:Her laundry was never done.How is that for profound?More thoughts on graveyards soon.Love,Di