Remembrance

Grey clouds fill the sky that blooms along what was once a colorful field. This field,
sprinkled with numerous carved stones, shows the beginnings of age. The smell of freshly cut clippings is gone, leaving only this unkept stiff grass. Several drooping lilacs, roses, and daisies rest beside one another in the weathered pots. Rusty, black fencing surrounds this plot, resting into the ground for what appears to be an eternity. All of this, enveloping a small field of stones.

Those beautiful stones, once vacant of crevices and cracks, show the effect of time’s passing as well. Its ability to slowly chisel away at what is cherished and cared for shows to everyone, everything. At one point, those stones of rich material were marked and written upon. Now those that were engraved into the stones have become washed away, the writings drenched in moist moss and stains from the nearby mud. Despite the moist moss weathering the engravings of these stones to complexity, they lead to a familiar thought in the minds of all. Those stones, now tarnished by time, do not need these markings associated with them. These names and dates need not be legible – rather, memory will always lead to them. Perhaps the stones are here as a reminder, one to say that not all lasts? No. For all, the stones are complexly and so concretely something more. These stones are not transient marks of the end, but instead, peaceful symbols – they are symbols visited in remembrance.

A gust of bitter cold wind sways the raggedy grass, suddenly blowing one of the
daisies away from the stones’ field – past one specific stone. This one, unlike the others, is clean. Not one dot of moss or mold marks this stone, nor does it contain stains of Earth’s age. With just a handful of cracks in the various corners, this stone appears to be truly shaped into the symbol’s purpose. While this stone does not bring a purpose at first, it does bring remembrance to a time of certainty, and known familiarity. With all of the past having been familiar, was it truly encapsulated in this stone? It brings about something other than known experiences. Although any simple passerby might find that this stone is simply yet another reminder that life passes and goes, it is truly more than just time ending. This clean, slightly cracked stone represents a gallery of memories, wishes and feelings.

-N