In anticipation of Memorial Day, Jim and I went to Murray’s Greenhouse in our home town to purchase flowering plants to plant at the graves of my parents and brother. The greenhouse is an amazing place – so fragrant and full of life with sound of the birds who roost in the rafters and the colors of so many different growing things. The graves are unshaded and need sturdy plants so after looking around we settled on the old standbys of geranium, petunias and argeratum.
The cemetery is about a 40 minute trip. No one else was there. While Jim was preparing the soil, shaking out old sods and adding compost we brought along, my eyes wandered to a flat black granite stone that I had never noticed before. Evidently, the stone belongs to a relative of our nearest neighbor on South Rd. where I grew up. I was drawn to give a closer look at the words written upon it:
Teach me your mood o patient stars!
Who climb each night the ancient sky
Leaving on space no shadow or scars
No trace of age, no fear to die.
R. W. Emerson
I assumed that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the poem and I thought it fitting that it appears on a New Hampshire grave because in my research about Ellen Webster, I learned that Emerson had stayed at the Tavern/Inn in Bridgewater, NH, just like so many of other important folks of the day like Daniel Webster, and other poets whose names you would recognize. What a lovely surprise to find this piece of writing for someone like me who loves meaningful words.
Enjoy the holiday weekend, but please take a moment to remember those who have gone before and all of the trials and sacrifices in their lives.
God Bless!
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
