I do photography as a hobby and one area of great interest is cemeteries for me...Every grave represents a person, a life...the stonework of the gravestones, and words on them, illuminate a life gone...Cemeteries aren't creepy to me, they are like church outside...I took care of the graves, mowed them, weeded them...

My father and my grandfather were St. Vincent's cemetery caretakers and we had the maps and the books with causes of deaths listed, etc. that I read with fascination as a child and re-read as a young adult when starting to do family histories.

Such things tell the face of the human experience...That's why I love history in general, and why people like the ancient Egyptians see themselves in people that came before them, make connections with eternity, reach out to god, etc.

THE TALES TOLD BY TOMBSTONES ARE NOT SPOKEN FOR THE EARS BUT ARE WHISPERED SOFTLY TO THE SOUL...

"Walk among these weather-worn links to the past, and listen with your heart. Hear their stories of days gone by, of life, of love, of memories. Reach out your hand and feel the warmth that can be found in the cold marble marking the passing of a life from this plain. It is a warmth that celebrates the memory of each person as it mourns life's ending. Even the most faded gravestone, the carefully carved letters barely decipherable after the passage of years, speaks to us of the struggles and triumphs of an all too brief existence. Bound to a common fate, destined to sleep in these regimented rows, pause for a moment to reflect. You are a link in a chain spanning the gap between the past and the future. Learn from the dead the wonder of life. Let the perspective of eternity show you the preciousness of each moment. There are lessons to be learned...in a cemetery..."

- From Cold Marble, where "contemplation of the end of life brings...new appreciation for all the wonders that make up each moment..."

CHERISH EVERY MOMENT...

We can't live life in fear of what will happen. Just take a day at a time. Sometimes only a moment at a time. Cherish little things. Look at clouds through tree branches. Savor an odor from a baking pie. taste the salt in our tears. Breath slow and deep. Feel a hand dance across our skin...

On the other hand, as a friend recently reminded me, we dishonor ourselves and others around us by burying our heads in the sand. I hope whoever may read this will not only take time to smell the rose, but will take time to learn about it, and protect it...our time is short - make the best of it...

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