Sitting in a Cemetery

By: Erik Rittenberry

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

— Khalil Gibran

Now and then I like to stroll into an old cemetery and just sit for a few moments in complete silence under the midday sun.

It’s strange I know but being there alone feels like being in a little sanctuary far from the suicidal world that we’ve created for ourselves. The birds, the subtle hum of the afternoon, the dead flowers scattered around the decrepit gravestones — just taking it all in.

Being fully there and pondering on the impermanence of it all, the brevity of breath, death death death — to feel it deeply, to let it quiver, to be completely frightened to the core by the mystery of it. That’s perspective.

I’m standing at ease in the green grass with rotting bones beneath my feet — bones that were once draped with skin, hair, organs, and blood vessels — bones that were once people who suffered, loved, and had secrets, and jobs, and children, and strong beliefs only to forever vanish from the pulse of life. Mostly forgotten.

It’s a conscious elevating experience every time. A mid-day meditation that forces you into a state of gratefulness for the modest little miracles around you — the ant, the dandelion on the sidewalk, the mole on your neck, the fallen leaves under the mighty oak.

To acknowledge the shortness of life and to live not in denial but with complete awareness of our imminent death — to keep it as a companion in your front pocket as a reminder of our brief visitation on this amazing planet.

I can’t help but be reminded of what the great German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, once said: “If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life — and only then will I be free to become myself.”

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Thanks so much for reading. You can find me around the internet at the following: Medium.com: https://medium.com/@erikrittenberry Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erik.rittenberry IG: https://www.instagram.com/erik_rittenberry/

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