Under Peppercorn Trees

I watched the TV News last night. Later my sleeping was disturbed with tangled dreams and long periods of time when I lay awake grieving for the world.

This morning I took a wrong turn when looking for a place in the city. Turning my car around I found myself beside an old cemetry. I’ve been to this place a couple of times before and found it to be oddly comforting. On the spur of the moment I decided to take a walk there this morning. I set off with the intention to find a section of very old graves and yew trees. Somehow I took another wrong turn and found myself in a wide laneway of graves clustered beneath peppercorn trees.

The first headstone I saw in this section was blank – the name erased by time perhaps.

On the other side of this tree I came to a grave with the word ‘Sacred’ carved into the headstone. At that moment the word summed up the feelings that came over me as I walked through the graveyard.

I passed many graves of people who had died in wars, the graves of children who had died too young and the graves of those who had lived well into their nineties.

Some of the older graves appeared to be becoming one with the peppercorn trees.

All in all, it was a strange way to pass time this morning but by the time I got back to my car I felt a deep, solemn peace that is hard to put into words. Perhaps you can feel something of it when you look at my photos.

All life is sacred.