I don't normally go for walks outside after it gets much below 50, but today - while it was only 33℉, it was a calm day and I thought taking a walk outdoors would be a excellent start to the new year.
I often enjoy walking in the local cemetery because it's fairly private, and quiet. And if I don't feel up to a long walk, I can simply park my car anywhere and walk as long as I want on the many intersecting roads and not ever be very far from my vehicle. That was a good plan for a day I didn't know how long I could tolerate the cold.
That said, I found myself wishing I'd chosen another option, simply because a cemetery seems a less than optimistic place to begin a new year.
On the other hand, I was surprised at how many people were visiting graves today. As I walked, I avoided passing closely to those visitors, but I could see well enough to not see people out beside the graves. People were evidently sitting in their vehicles - yet feeling the need to visit a lost loved one on this first day of the new year.
It struck me as rather profound. A day when some are working, but most are relaxing at home, and on a cold day like today, not too inclined to go out unless something is needed - as was evident by the many sparse parking lots I passed while driving through town.
I understand. I don't know the stories behind the visitors to the graves, but I can imagine that going to the graveside of a loved one today was exactly the right thing to do for whomever it was.
And for one who calls herself a Christian, who too often fails miserably to that calling, simply walking the paths there, I am soberly reminded whose I am.
He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away
the tears from all faces;
He will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth...
Isaiah 25:8
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