Lilacs and Peonies
When I was a kid my grandma and I would go to the cemeteries every Memorial Day. She would begin worrying in early May if the lilacs and the peonies would be blooming. We would cut giant bunches of flowers; load them in her old car along with glass canning jars and a small shovel. Off we would go, first to the Star City cemetery. It was my job to dig a small hole, place the canning jar in the hole, pump water from the well and carry it to the gravesite and fill the jar and place the flowers in the jar. Also I was to pull any weeds that grew up around the headstone. All the time I was doing that my grandma was talking with other people who were also placing flowers on the graves of their loved ones. It was a busy bustling place. My grandfather was buried there. (My grandma now rests beside him) He died 3 years before I was born. But my grandma always told me how much he would have loved me. After several hours we went on to another cemetery. My grandma would visit with others and that cemetery even had benches for folks to sit and chat. I wish I had listened closer to her stories. She was the one person in my childhood who was always kind to me. To this day come spring time I hope the lilacs and peonies are ready for Memorial Day. Today I drove past the cemetery, and it dawned on me... we are all just passing through this physical life. I know I know.. I am slow to catch on. We will all die and turn to dust, sooner or later. We can fight it but we can’t change it. One day our bones will lay forgotten, and all the things we worked so hard for will be laying in some landfill. All of our things will be lost and forgotten, this made me question what will I leave my children and grandchildren and some day great grand children? I hope I leave a legacy of fighting for what I believe in. I hope I am leaving some thing real something worthy and not just stuff. These days, I can't physically visit those cemeteries any longer, but I can still recall all those stories and the good times I spent with someone whom I know in my heart cared about me. Perhaps that is the best gift that I can leave my own loved ones. I will try harder to do that.
. This is recycled from last year.
3 comments:
I know exactly what you mean about visiting the cemetaries. I used to go with my grandparents to about 3 different ones every Memorial Day.
I don't know what happened with the lilacs and peonies, but they come out a lot earlier than they did in those days. My lilacs have been dead and gone for about 3 weeks & the peonies died last week. Weird isn't it!
Great post friend.
AOB
MSN:
You're more fortunate than I am.
My folks rest back in Philly, and the neighborhood has been changing since I moved away (not for the bnetter, mind you), and there is not ONE day that passes, that I don't think about that.
Moreover, I also think about where I will wind up...which I haven't a clue (yet).
Probably be buried out here, I guess.
Our lilacs have been gone for a few weeks, and the peonies are just NOW shedding their petals. Won't be long before they're also gone.
Mortality is a nasty beast, and it's usually nipping at our feet.
I like to think that it's not about what WE hope and think about in our lives that lives after us, but rather ALL the people whose lives we touched and weren't even aware of it.
That remembrance as well as those memories of us by loved ones will outlive the ages...as long as WE remember.
Besides, I want to believe that leaving this world is not an ending, but a new beginning.
I think we all need to hang onto that.
Very good post.
I guess I am from old school also.I remember going out to Winamac where my grandparents are buried and at the cemeteries here in town to place real flower's, not artificial wreath's,flower's etc....When did the fake flower's become popular?
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