With the November winds blowing in and the leaves almost picked up, it was time to do some holiday maintenance. I went in search of easels and wreaths with which to adorn the graves of the ones we love. We had Brooke and Mason with us and though it is not easy to explain what we were doing...we gave it a try...I was in the car with Brooke having just picked up the wreaths, which were fresh and had a bright red bow attached....."what is a wreath???" she asked. I told her it was evergreen branches wrapped tightly in a circle with a bow... What's evergreen...yikes....it is the bushes and pine trees and it smells like a Christmas tree. "You know what a Christmas tree smells like don't you" I asked. "No" she replied and she was correct I guess. They have an artificial tree at Christmas as most of us do so we resort to holiday sprays to get the effect. I tried to explain that evergreen is always green and the needles always point up to heaven....that having no effect allowed my mind to travel and remember the holidays when I was a child and it was literally a moment before Christmas that our real tree went up and the smell of the pine filled the house with the most marvelous scent....I will always remember my Dad going through the lights to put on the tree and I always worried because if the lights didn't work it was to late to go to the store and buy more and if we didn't have lights then we couldn't finish decorating the tree. Somehow my Dad did those lights with an amazing patience that I still to this day have never possessed. He would sit and fiddle with them and before you knew it he had them fixed and on the tree and not just twinkle lights, these were the large C7 or C9 lights that lite up the room with amazing power. I on the other hand have always found it easier to give up, throw them away and go buy new ones....I guess I couldn't be bothered with something so futile....but my Dad never waivered....amazing...
On route to the cemetary, Brooke wanted to know what was a cemetary. I told her it was a place like a park where we buried the people we love....and I knew as soon as I said it, it sounded so strange. She asked me so you put them in the ground...yep....and then it hit me for the first time....we take someone that we treasure more than life itself and we bury them in the dirt like a tulip bulb....she told me I don't want to go and see bones.....because I saw that in a scary movie on CSI....I have to admit I had to turn around and look at her in awe, I never would of thought of that, but I guess if you are 4....you do think of that...and what were you doing watching CSI?..no answer.. I assured her we would not see the bones and tried to explain, that their bodies remain here while their souls or spirits go to Jesus....what is a spirwit? she asked....it is everything, that makes you who you are, your love, your thoughts, your sense of humor everything that makes you unique...confusing I am sure to a child....confusing I guess to an adult....then in her infinite wisdom she said "so Jesus takes your smile.?.." and I was in awe....I never thought of it that way. While we take care of the part we created and loved, Jesus calls home the part he created and loves...and through the eyes of a 4 year old I saw her wisdom. So we got to the cemetary and placed our wreaths on our planted friends, said a prayer and left....but I could not get her words out of my head...and so in this month of rememberance it takes awhile to remember all the people who once crossed paths with your life and now are with God...
I will return to Jono's grave with his picture and a message, because that too occurred to me that after all is said and done we become a slab of marble in the ground for the people who do not know us....so next to his picture I will leave this message:
I once walked this ground and brought laughter
and joy to many people.
I was a kid, a son, a brother, a friend.....
I laughed, I lived and I even learned.
I touched people and they touched me
and now I take that with me and
I will watch from here while you watch
from there...
remember me and I will remember you always...
until we meet again.....
Sleep well my friends......until we meet again, I will look upon the sun as your combined smiles and the stars as the twinkle of your eyes....
