Golden Cemetery Scene

I have been wanting to show you this for some time now: the beautiful, golden tree line at Gray's Cemetery, which I pass each morning and evening on my way to and from work. It's the home of the charming little gazebo I've photographed from time to time.

On this morning, I finally had a few minutes to stop and take a look around. The farmer across the road has been making lots and lots of hay bales (or perhaps cornstalk bales, I'm unsure of which), and I just can't resist them. The cemetery was the closest place where I could put the car. From there, I walked across the road and photographed the bales, but it turned out that I liked the golden cemetery better. :-)

I am a connoisseur of cemeteries, and this particular one is a beauty. While the road that runs past it (route 550) can be quite busy at times (so be careful pulling in and out of the narrow little lanes), the cemetery itself is a quiet, peaceful place. I peer closely into it every time I pass it, and often wish I had time to stop.

Years ago, my father gifted me with two burial plots in our church cemetery back home at St. John's. If he hadn't, I think this place would be a pretty one in which to lay my tired bones down. (Bone status report: my bones aren't too tired yet, and the rest of me is far from used up, I am happy to report. And so we hope the laying down of bones will take place in the vague, faraway "someday," a long, long time from now!)

A graveyard is a fine place to come for peaceful contemplation. I have been playing in them since I was a tiny child: strolling among the grave stones, admiring the pretty little flags of the honored dead, reading the names and dates, dreaming up lives to go along with them. I hope they have all found peace here. I know I have, in this golden cemetery, among these many stones; amid this field of bones.

The soundtrack: U2, with Love and Peace or Else.