Where Have All the Real Flowers Gone? Not to Graveyards Anymore

Willow Creek Mennonite Cemetery, © B. Radisavljevic

When I was a child there were certain holidays when my family would visit the cemetery with flowers for all our family members who rested there. They were real flowers, most from our gardens. I remember the search for the containers by the graves and putting water in them with the flowers. We lovingly left them to honor our loved ones. During my childhood, I don't think I ever saw an artificial flower on a grave.

In some cemeteries, that's about all I see anymore. I can think of many reasons why. The cemetery pictured above is an old one in rural Paso Robles. I'm guessing that many families have no surviving members in the area. I don't think I saw one real bouquet on a grave. I can't help but wonder who leaves the artificial flowers. It is those who leave the area after burying a family member they don't expect to visit again? Does the church associated with the cemetery take care of it? The church is no longer in that location. It is evident someone cares for the graves to keep them free of weeds.

Perhaps it just seems more practical these days to leave flowers that won't wilt. But the real flowers are a reminder that we all fade and die.

"As for man, his days are like grass.  He flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him..." Psalm 103: 15-17

Do you still see real flowers on graves? Why do you think artificial flowers seem to be replacing them in many cemeteries? Is it only in the West where a flower planted on a gravesite would not get water? Some cemeteries no longer allow people to plant flowers beside graves, and, sadly, potted plants are often stolen.

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An Unlikely Place for a Cross

It's Sunday morning, and I thought I'd share this photo I took one day while hiking Oak View Road in Templeton. This road runs through a rural residential area, a place of small farms, vineyards, oak trees, and meadows visited by deer, wild turkeys, and turkey vultures. Ground squirrels also scamper across this road less traveled, which is, in fact, a dirt road only a mile long. There is not a church within a a few miles. Yet I saw this cross formed by utility poles. At least, from my perspective, it looked very much like a cross, even though no one had intended it to be one.

It stands as a reminder to those who walk this road that God made all the beauty on the earth and in the sky. He provides the sun and the rain which enable all the plants, from the smallest weed to the tallest oak, to grow. The Bible says these are gifts to all -- the just and the unjust. God loves everyone. Jesus showed that over two thousand years ago on a different cross when he took the sins of all of us upon himself to make reconciliation with God the Father possible. You can read about it in the chapter of John in the Bible. The cross is the symbol of God's grace to us.

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