Carpe Diem

Today is traditionally the day that we declare our New Year's resolutions. This year I shall try to seize the day, every day, for who knows how many there are left to seize?

Scottish graveyards, with their ancient stones richly decorated with symbols of our mortality, are just the place to get things into perspective. This stone, in the tiny, remote, and rarely-visited graveyard of Leochel, is carved with an uncommon, but particularly potent, symbol of our inevitable fate, the Angel of Death.

The Angel of Death is usually depicted as a putto, a representation of a child, usually a boy, naked or as in this case, in swaddling clothes. The stone dates from the late 1700s and the putto is sporting a periwig in the fashion of the time. The Angel is carrying an hour-glass and a scythe to remind the observer that time is fast running out and that life may be cut short at any time.

Happy New Year - Carpe Diem!