GRAVEYARD SHIFT....A REALITY CHECK

The other day as I was walking I came across a church in the countryside and a graveyard behind it. I don’t know why , but churches have always appealed to me right from my school days and whenever I see one I somehow find myself staring at it for a while and sometimes also going in and sitting on the benches if it is allowed. But this time a very strange thing happened to me. There was something about this graveyard which got me completely hooked. I stood there, still. For how long I don’t exactly know. And the feeling was not one of scare or fright. It was a very calm, peaceful feeling devoid of any urgency to leave or the necessity to talk with someone. It was as if time stood still and I was wrapped in a blanket of love, peace and acceptance. For a moment I was completely unaware of the hustle and bustle of this busy world. Was it the finality of the people’s destiny that lay there in peace creating that atmosphere? Was it the lovely flowers that grew all around? Or was is just mother nature’s way of saying that peace is where we begin in a mother’s womb, peace is where we finally end and the journey in between is full of that inherent peace which somehow gets overpowered by the world ego . It made me stop and think of the importance of all the lovely people that I have in my world, the love and blessings that flow unconditionally, the help I have received at various times and the wonderful friendship that I share with some. I was grateful for being a part of this wonderful universe and immensely grateful to God for that pause in my busy daily schedule which made me think of all the positive elements of my life, to realise how blessed I was to have all that I do. It made me feel responsible for my achievements as well as my shortcomings in life. I said a little prayer of gratitude and as I opened my eyes it fell on the epitaph in front which read...

“Life is a jest, and all things show it;

I thought so once and now I know it.”