I like cemeteries.

Some of my friends find this fact about me strange. And I realise that it does sound weird, or at least slightly gothic. But I enjoy wandering through cemeteries, finding the oldest tombs, and realising the sense of peace and quiet found in a cemetery that you can find nowhere else.

I once read somewhere that you should make all major decisions in a cemetery.

At first, I didn’t understand what this meant. This advice seemed odd. Why a cemetery? I figured it had something to do with, death, wisdom, etc. but was still unsure. Still, however, last year while in the midst of change, and making career decisions, I decided to give it a whirl. Perhaps the cemetery would provide for me what my own brain was struggling to decipher and decide.

So with my head full of all sorts of seriousness and meaning, and looking for some sort of divine wisdom, to the cemetery I went.

I must admit, I think I was expecting a miracle. Hoping for something awe-inspiring to click in my head.

And what did I get?

A cemetery.

Nothing more. Nothing less. Rows upon rows of crooked tombstones, rotten and broken through hundreds of years of weather-wearing.

I had forgotten about all of this until a recent trip to the cemetery near my work. All of a sudden this piece of advice made sense. And it all seems wildly obvious.

The conclusion I came to is thus: Cemeteries put things into perspective. No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter how much money you make, or how little, one day you will end up here. In a cemetery. (or with your ashes strewn off some mountain - whatever works).

Looking at major decisions in this light, the stress of decision making fades. Priorities come into focus, while pettiness and trifles fade away. All of sudden what is most important in life becomes a little more clear, if only for the moments you are standing among the stones.

Life, is life. On earth it changes and ebbs and flows, but always ends the same. In a cemetery.

So I tell myself, enjoy. Stress less and live.

This Tombstone reads:

Died 3/22/1899 - Went to sleep at the age of 81

"She is not dead, this friend - not dead

But in the path no mortals tread.

Got some few trifling steps ahead

and nearer to the end,

so that you too once past the bend,

Shall meet again as face to face this friend you fancy dead"

(Perhaps death, actually, is a sweet relief from the burdens of facebook, twitter and the fast pace of life which we keep complaining about, and yet still find the time to complain that it is not yet quick enough.)