Today was a bright sunny day with almost no wind. Neal suggested we leave the greenway declivity and walk in the neighborhoods. We passed St. Michael’s Cemetery and ventured in. The graves were very close and headstones new. Many were black/grey with golden lettering, and many had pictures. There was a row of memorial benches on the back wall; many were inscribed and contained recent memorial gifts of flowers and other objects. Some headstones had huge rosaries hanging on them and these were not glued to the stones. There were some recent graves, one covered with fresh flowers indicating the funeral was only yesterday. A man driving a digger was coming to make a new grave in a marked area. There was plenty of space in the cemetery.
Neal and I discussed what we would want on our headstones if we had them. Neal would like a true Celtic cross with no Christian (later) imagery. The inscription would be St. Francis’ saying, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary use words.”
I want my headstone to say “You are loved. You are loving. You are lovable.” And I’d like for the stone to be a sculpture emerging from a block of stone, indicating that on this earth we are all unfinished works of art.
We walked 4 km and I tried to increase my stride rather than speed, and in that way lower my “per km” rate. It worked and I am down. I felt like the cemetery sapped my energy a bit.
