Would you be surprised if I told you that when I am flustered and need to feel peace and comfort, I go to a cemetery? It’s true. At least, a Maine cemetery. Here in Maine, your loved ones can be buried in a cemetery or on your own land. Yes, we still have home burials here and they are completely legal. You need only designate the area officially and file it with the State. Many people do it, and I think I’ll do it myself someday. Where else would I want to rest but in my beautiful Maine?
But back to the idea of feeling peace and comfort at a
cemetery. Cemeteries in Maine are quiet. They are not overcrowded. They do not have millions of cars passing by
daily. There is no city noise or
pollution. If you look at this picture,
you can see sheep grazing in the background, and I think this is ideal. This is Partridge
Cemetery in Woolwich, Maine,
and it is like many of the cemeteries here.
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| Partridge Cemetery, Woolwich, Maine. |
It’s that casual mingling of life and death that creates
peace in my mind. It’s the final resting
place of people who helped to shape this State in its early years, and yet the
sheep graze comfortably and lazily in the background without a care in the
world. And isn’t that what they should
be doing? Shouldn’t they be cropping the
grass, lazily eating, and going about their business?
I’d like to think that those who are buried here approve of
this. After all, this is an old cemetery
with some members who were born in the mid 1750s. Seeing sheep grazing would have been as
commonplace and ordinary to them as seeing cars is for most Americans. It would have been comforting. It would have given them a sense of peace and
prosperity, a knowledge that food and wool for clothing was available.
To the sheep and those whose final resting place is in Partridge Cemetery, this is what life is
about. We live, we love, we eat, we
die. How wealthy we truly are! Ask any member of this cemetery what wealth
is, and if you could get an answer, it would not be “money.” It would be “continuity.” Add me to the list when it’s my time.
