Legacy, what do we really leave behind?
Today, was a great day! I was booked for a change and so I was really happy! Things seem to be picking up again, so I am very blessed! So as I am going out the door today, I think… Hummmmmm I should take my camera! I was off to the other side of town for appointments, since I normally dont explore it, I grabbed my camera and out the door I went!
So after a great day, I was heading home, LOOKING for that one place that just GRABS me, energetically or pulls me to it. Well nothing did, so I thought why? Why was I lead to take my camera, and not shoot one photo. Yes I know that many people will just shoot photos, and then process them and see what they took later. But still developing the professional eye you have to get out of that habit, you have to envision what your taking and set goals. So that is what I was thinking about as I drove back to my side of town.
Man, what did I miss today? So, as I am driving down Aloma I remember the cemetery! Many months ago, a friend of mine shot a beautiful angel and I know where that angel was… the cemetery by the golf course. So I navigated to that spot and found that angel. As I am shooting it, I found myself in an emotional space. A space that I have visited a lot since so many of the people that I have loved has passed away in the last 4 or 5 years.
I changed lens from the Canon 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III, the telephoto was great but I wanted to play around with the Sigma DC 17-70mm 1:2.8-4.5 wide angle, to get a closer feel. Also in the early part of the morning I updated the firmware of the 30D, so I was really excited. I got some great shots of this angel! Different angles and closeups, which really made me happy that it was such a GREAT subject and had so much character to document.
So after I got the shots that I wanted, I started feeling that feeling again, sadness seem to be just riding over me. No one else was visiting any of the graves now, the guy that was there had since left. As I look around I decide to get back in the truck and just figure out what to do. I decided to drive around the cemetery. What other angels are in here, or cool tombs?
So I go up and down the roads looking and feeling my way, and I seen some amazing tombs, and I started thinking about each of these people that had passed away. These tombs were they visited often? Some of them cost as much as a small house now days. I was drawn to this back corner, an seen this amazing house like structure, built out of granite. I took a shot, then I had to go up to the door and look in. As I put my hands up to the glass, and looked in it look like a place for two coffins to rest, both had names engraved on them, both were male, and I just had a wave of emotion come over me. As I continued to look in I seen a wrought iron table, a chair, and a dozen red roses, and a roll of paper towels… and tears just streamed down my face.
It is so hard to find the one, the one that captures our hearts and then lose them. Yes, I know that is a part of our life. How sad to deal with a loss, a connection that is so deep like this one had to be. As I looked around, I started to investigate the other tombs around that area, the ones that were like sections of people devotion, statements of love.
I was drawn to another, and then another, and ended up walking around the whole section, I came upon a Black Angel, it was amazing. The lighting was not what I would have hope for, but it was ok. I adjusted my ISO, and played around with the shutter speeds, but in post I found out the first photo was not at all what I thought it would be.
Then I seen this tomb, it was different from all the others. It just grasped my heart, and I walked over to it. It said “Lacey” so I thought that it was a daughter or mother, sister but it was a young mans tombstone. “Ryan Todd Lacey“ it was so beautiful, I just stood there looking at the design, the engravings, and feeling for the parents of this young man, I know that they had to miss there son, and the grief that they must have endured.
The tombstone had a box set on it and said “out of the box and into heaven”. It was so beautiful. When I got home tonight, I googled the name, the young man was cleaning his gun, and it went off and killed him. Ryan was 21, a target shooter, and a student at UF. The family has setup a foundation in his memory to assist adolescents in coping with a parent’s diagnosis of a chronic disease.
All in all, today was a good day, I prayed for the graves and felt that some of them had not been visited in many years. I wondered just how many times graves are visited. What happens to graves after the generation of the kids are resting with them, the grandkids, or great grands do they visit.
It brings me to memories of my grand parents, all 4 of them have crossed over, each of them are buried with nice tombstones. I have visited each of them, but not like I should because I do not feel they are there. When I go to the grave sites, it is a void for me. I have taken photos of the tombstones, and have looked at them since I live in Florida now and cant drive to see them without making a major trip.
Legacy, what do we really leave behind? When given this thought I wander if it really is what we do, done or have setup while living. Could it be the legacy of our life is created in our honor when we die?
I do not want to be buried in a tomb and seal in a coffin to be visited a few years, until I am forgotten. I don’t want to have a team exploring my bones years down the road to see what my life is all about, like what is currently going on in the tombs of Egypt, or digs in indian burial grounds. The bones then studied but someone that is disconnected with me or my memory.
I want to be cremated and then scattered to the wind… over water. My ideal place would be my favorite place on the earth (as of this moment) which is Niagara Falls. This week I was watching and believe I even posted about Tesla, he was cremated and placed in a Golden Sphere, his favorite shape, but I dont want to be confined, I want to be free, after I die I want to be free with no boxes, not even for the suit I just shed!
Names wrote on stones is what most peoples legacy’s consist of, and some people dont even have tombstones, just a marker or even worse, buried in a gravefeild with the other John/Jane Doe’s of the world.
I still have no answer to the question that this blog poses…. But it is food for thought.
Live your life to the fullest … and be blessed!
