Flat Fever

I love being a student -- really and truly. The library is home and JSTOR my pet. But yesterday and today, I have not been able to focus on studying much at all. I just started thinking about how I haven't been out of my little radius here even though I'm in SCOTLAND and quickly developed a severe case of cabin fever -- flat fever. So after a presentation workshop today, I took the long way home.

I walked down King's street, and slowed considerably as I came to the iron gates of an old cemetery. I thought about going in, but I passed by before I could quite make up my mind. But another set of gates stood cracked open a wee bit at the end of the block, so I entered. (I wished for my camera, but Google maps will have to do. Of course, it's fall now, so the trees were not so green as this, and leaves crunched under my feet.)

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It was still -- as graveyards are. Many of the monuments were taller than I am, not the puny sort I'm used to that you could easily trip over, so I felt truly surrounded and... comforted. This being the first time I've walked on grass in a while, I'm not sure if  the ground's stark contrast to the unforgiving pavement of Aberdeen's streets made it seem so soft or if the grass really was that plush. A bunny hopped across the path probably 50 feet (around 15 meters) in front of me. I guess it lives there in the cemetery -- a little grassy haven in the middle of the Granite City.

I wished I had time to systematically examine every marker, but I only read a few, and didn't even walk through the whole place. Among those that stood out were a girl only 21 named Jeannie, a pilot who died in 1943 (WWII) at the age of 22, and a few mothers who died with their children. There was one stone that had fallen frontwards onto the grass, and I was very curious about it. (Aren't you?)

My very favorite was erected for Ida Hope by her husband: The inscription said, "Goodnight -- not goodbye," which I thought incredibly sappy but endearing nevertheless. But what was so captivating to me was that the monument was a cross wrapped solidly in an anchor's chain. I tried Googling a picture of something similar for your benefit, but the only images I found were of either an anchor at the foot of a cross with one line of chain going up to the cross or an anchor that somehow is the cross. This anchor was wrapped on tightly and surely wasn't going anywhere.

That's how I feel right now. I know very little at this point about what I believe, (Sorry, BC) but one thing I do know: Jesus Christ is Lord. So that's where my anchor is with its chain coiled around and around because there's nothing else.

I love Ida Hope... and her sweet husband.

But that was just the beginning of my walk. Mmm... yeah, there was nothing else quite as good for the whole rest of the way. Not the big churches or even the magnificent Marischal College:

I've been trying to find postcards but might just have to make my own, because I'm beginning to think there are no good ones to be found. But... I'm working on it.

-Kavod-