Within the Gates

"I stopped in St. Bernadette's Cemetery one of my favorite places... The trunks of six giant oaks rise like columns supporting a ceiling formed by their interlocking crowns. In the quiet space below, is laid out an aisle similar to those in any library. The gravestones are like rows of books bearing the names of those whose names have been blotted from the pages of life; who have been forgotten elsewhere but are remembered here."

Dean Koontz, Fear Nothing


Although my anxieties are legend, cemeteries have never been anything I've feared. Instead I find some degree of solace in these fields of the souls departed as I walk among rows of stones, some ancient and others as fresh as yesterday. They are quiet places, often uniquely beautiful. They are places to rest on granite benches to think and pray and learn from lessons chiseled in stone.

This historical cemetery is in Micanopy. I spent an hour here alone, except for a cat who decided to join me, walking by my side the whole time I was there, chasing away a snake I hadn't noticed as I knelt to get a better angle for a shot I was preparing to take. Cemeteries may not scare me but snakes, even little ones, do.

.... and the adventure continues.