a morning at the cemetery

The snapshots above are from Friday's excursion to Spring Grove Cemetery. It was my first time, and I was blown away by the beauty: gorgeous mausoleums, ornate monuments, flowering trees, and so much wildlife I almost got a chub. Zoey hasn't been able to stop talking about the geese and the turtles; on Saturday she went to a birthday party, and I was all she could talk about. "Guy" this and "Guy" that. She told everyone how I take her to the woods, how I chase her around the house, how she rides on my back while I pretend to be a horse, how I make silly faces and weird noises as she squeals in laughter, how I capture animals and let her touch them. Ashley and I plan on taking her and Chloe to all sorts of parks and nature preserves this summer; all winter they've spent their days watching Nickelodeon and playing games on their tablets, and it's about time they get outside and play like real kids.

This morning before work I returned to Spring Grove Cemetery for a "Prayer Walk," just walking the paths, sitting along the ponds with turtles and geese to keep me company, and meditating on passages of scripture from the much-unappreciated Book of Titus. During my wanderings I snapped some decent pictures of spring in full bloom:

As I was lost in pondering prayer, the lyrics of a song from the radio kept getting stuck in my head. This past week has been difficult, as I've been wrestling with everything that happened nearly a year ago, and there are times when I feel so low, discouraged, defeated, and hopeless. It often feels like this dark shadow will never pass. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth, bite your tongue (a lesson I've still yet to learn), and keep trucking along. The song that kept popping into my head is Tenth Avenue North's You Are More. 

there's a girl in the corner with tear stains on her eyes

from the places she's wandered and the shame she can't hide

she says, "How did I get here? I'm not who I once was.

And I'm crippled by the fear that I've fallen too far to love."

but don't you know who you are, what's been done for you?

you are more than the choices that you've made,

you are more than the sum of your past mistakes,

you are more than the problems you create,

you've been remade

well she tries to believe it, that she's been given new life

but she can't shake the feeling that it's not true tonight

she knows all the answers and she's rehearsed all the lines

and so she'll try to do better, but then she's too weak to try

you are more than the choices that you've made,

you are more than the sum of your past mistakes,

you are more than the problems you create,

you've been remade

'cause this is not about what you've done,

but what's been done for you

this is not about where you've been,

but where your brokenness brings you to

this is not about what you feel,

but what he felt to forgive you,

and what he felt to make you loved