In the old cemetery . . .

. . . I sat for a while this morning and watched the sky lighten, while the wheel of the year circled around me.

It was drizzling rain and the morning came late, but it came at last. I sat back on the ancient metal bench and breathed the air of change, in and out, quietly in and out.

The gravestones glittered faintly in the dim light. Looking at them, I remembered my mother and father, god rest their souls, and my dear friends Penny, Mary, Ann, and Tom, dead of cancer every one, leaving me lonely in my aching body on this troubled earth.

Death itself is always quick. It took only a moment for each of my loved ones to leave this world and enter eternity, and after all my waiting and my fear, it will take but a moment when my turn comes at last. Then I will enter eternity and return to the world again in the blink of an eye. This world and the next, time and eternity, in the body and out again, are just one inspiration and expiration of the soul that lasts forever.

For now I sit on the unfathomable bench under the pine trees of the universe, breathing the air of change, in and out, in and out.
Love,
Lilly

Here is an image of the Ithaca cemetery in the daylight: