I took these pictures today at our cemetery in town. Visiting there today was illuminating. It was so still and silent. So quiet. I have always been drawn to old cemeteries. I enjoy walking through them and feeling completely at peace. Old cemeteries are a reminder that until it is carved in stone, realizing our heart's desire is possible every day if we recognize what it is that makes us happy.
In Thornton Wilder's play Our Town a deeply moving scene takes place in a graveyard. Ghosts comfort the young heroine, who has recently died in childbirth. Emily, still longing for the life she has just left, wishes to revisit one ordinary, "unimportant" day in her life. When she gets her wish, she realizes how much the living take for granted.
Eventually, her visit is too much for her to bear. "I didn't realize," she confesses mournfully, "all that was going on and we never noticed....Good-by, world. Good-by Grover's Corners...Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking....and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths....and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."
This is the season of Epiphany, when the renewal of light and revelation are celebrated in the liturgy of the Catholic, Episcopal, and Eastern Orthodox churches. Let us take a new path where we seek everyday epiphanies~ occasions on which we can experience the Sacred in the ordinary~ and come to the awakening, like Emily finally does, that we can no longer afford to throw away even one "unimportant" day by not noticing the wonder of it all. We have to be willing to discover and then appreciate the authentic moments of happiness available to all of us every day.
Source:
Simple Abundance by Susan Ban Breathnach
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