The cemetery visit causes eerie feelings of stillness and uneasiness.
1. It is very quiet, serene, peaceful and absolutely still, except for birds chirping all around me.
2. I made sure that I visited during the daylight hours when the sun was indeed shining brightly: displaying brilliant beauty and dispelling any shadows as I walked on tiptoes it seems.
-I am very afraid to visit the gravesite after sunset hours. I do not like dark shadows or anything that is mysterious or makes me feel queasy and uneasy.
-The gravesites all around are flat for the most part, with a few mounds of earth and head stones.
-The entire place is not even called a cemetery or gravesite, but it is known as a memorial garden. It does seem far more pleasant to me to visit and explore a memorial garden instead of a cemetery. When I hear the word garden connected to anything I think of doing fun things, of flowers, the green blossoms and the springtime buds and joyful memories. I think of vegetables and fruits growing on a plot of ground. I think of well-manicured lawns carpeted by rich, healthy green grass. I think of produce I can harvest from the earth, wash off and eat right away.
4. My cemetery visit is pleasant and exciting simply because of the weather and the
environment I encounter at the site and it is daytime and the light everywhere is very bright. The grounds are also immaculate and blossoming. The whole of nature seems to be at peace everywhere.
5. Most gravesites have names on them with very pretty collections of flowers and floral arrangements atop the ground. I cannot help but notice the green grass is flourishing well — healthy well-fed and quite inviting. A few other visitors stroll through the garden thoughtfully, mincing and watching their every step, apparently out of respect for the dead buried there.
6. I also notice a few crystal white gazebos scattered throughout the garden where visitors
can sit in order to reflect and meditate. Indeed flowers and perennials surround their white lattice work of wood with intricate and striking designs. Everything seems to have been made to encourage reverence and awe.
7. Even though very beautiful and still and quiet, the gravesite environment causes me
inevitably to think of my life, to think about death itself — what it is and why it is. I really wonder where all of those people went whose remains are buried beneath the cemetery dirt.
8. The entire scene also makes me think of my own mortality. How very fragile and transient human beings really are. “Here today and gone tomorrow” is a commonly spoken folk phrase that reminds me of how we must really take care of ourselves and live our lives as long and as rich as we can. The gravesite makes me think of the beauties of life that I possess now. Its joys and its many opportunities are incomparable. I certainly do not plan or wish to die now. I want to live as long as I can.
9. The cemetery visit also forces me to think of my own passage into the other realm, into
oblivion. What shall it be like it? I really wonder and have wondered for some time, now. What is