Walking With the Ghosts (and Chief)

Today I want to talk about cemeteries. I love a good cemetery, especially an old one. This is one of my favorites and reminds me of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (if you haven’t read it, stop what you’re doing and read it now.)

It’s getting tougher to get away from people outside these days. With nothing else to do it seems everyone has realized that there is a vast outside out there. Unfortunately this means sharing paths that I’m used to being empty.

Today it meant getting to the cemetery early. There were two other people already out walking around, but I only saw them once, and in the distance. Instead we were surrounded by the dead, and the quiet, and the sound of chipmunks fleeing for cover in a rush of scattered leaves. It was hot, at 67 degrees I think it’s the warmest day we’ve had this year. I was sweating in my light jacket and Chief panted violently on our second loop up the big hill into the old part of the cemetery.

I slowed down on the incline and enjoyed the soft rustle of last year’s dead leaves and thought:

“You’re alive, that means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change.” ― Neil Gaiman , The Graveyard Book