Sanctuary

        In a previous blog I'd written about the difference between a 'graveyard' and a 'cemetery'. Then I promptly forgot about it until, in a conversation with Ed, he mentioned it. This is what Google says...

"A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. ... The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard."

       So, what I call "the cemetery" began as a graveyard beside the church. The old church that stood there was cold and drafty in the winter. Consequently Sunday School was held in the summer. On nice Summer Sunday's our teacher would take us outside to the "graveyard" for class. In 1950 a new church was built in town, a half male from the previous site. So, did the graveyard then become a cemetery? 

       These reflections were occasioned by a question from my spiritual director "Where do you meditate?"  My answer "The cemetery." Originally it was ringed by ponderosa pine. When they died of old age they were replaced by spruce trees. Those trees are now 30 or 40 feet tall entirely enclosing the graveyard turned cemetery. A road runs the inside perimeter and it is a quarter mile long. When I've made 4 loops I've gone a mile. This has become my sanctuary and the place for my meditation. 

        Joanne's decision to be buried there has always pleased me. Little did I know that the pandemic would place me in such constant proximity to it. Naturally my walks always start and end at her grave.

Takk for alt,

Al