Jacksonville
Cemetery is part of the historic town's most interesting site,
in my opinion. It's earliest arrivals came at about the same time
as the Gold Rush, in the 1850's. The first time I drove up the steep
road, there was so much snow I was afraid to pull off the side of
the road and almost got stuck just trying to make the turn around
the main drive.
The
next time I went, less than a month later in early February,
the snow had all melted and there were little flowers popping
up everywhere. Life truly does go on, even in a graveyard.
The
setting is as peaceful as a cemetery should be, shaded by massive
Madrone trees.
Some
of the memorials were elaborately done...
...and
some were as simple as a tree trunk.
The
saddest ones tell of the babies taken from the earth before
they could celebrate one year of life.
This
full length model was more spooky to me than the rest for
some reason.
As I walked
around reading about the people who had died here, the only sounds I heard
were gentle ones like these fluttering birds and scampering squirrels.
However, when I was finally getting ready to leave, I heard a stronger
sound than I'd heard before and looked in its direction. There was a big
jackrabbit standing tall and looking right at me. He loped off quickly
when I went for my camera, and at that moment I had the thought, "If
I had one wish it would be that animals would know not to be afraid of
me and that I would never hurt them. They would want to be around me as
much as I want to be around them."
I truly believe
animals are great examples and teachers and are here partly to show us
things we might miss in our own lives, but can see more plainly in nature.
So, as you could see from my "Message
from Hawk" page, I don't take sightings of animals lightly and
the last thing I do before I go to bed each night is read in my Animal
Medicine book about all the animals I saw that day. It ALWAYS blows my
mind!
So last night,
in looking up what messages Rabbit holds, I came across this neat story:
"A
long time ago - no one really knows how long ago it was - Rabbit was
a brave and fearless warrior. Rabbit was befriended by Eye Walker,
a witch. The witch and Rabbit spent much time together talking and
sharing - the two were very close. One day as they were walking, Rabbit
said, "I'm thirsty." Eye Walker picked up a leaf, blew on
it, and then handed Rabbit a gourd of water. Rabbit drank but didn't
say anything. When Rabbit said, "I'm hungry," Eye Walker
picked up a stone and changed it to a turnip. Rabbit ate with relish
but still didn't say anything. When Rabbit tripped and fell, she used
a magic salve to heal his great pain and still he said nothing.
Several
days later as Eye Walker was searching for her friend, he was nowhere
to be found. When she finally met up with him by accident, she asked
why he was avoiding her. He answered "Because I am afraid of
you and your magic. Leave me alone!"
She responded, "I see - I have used my magical powers on your
behalf and now you turn on me and refuse my friendship." Rabbit
did not even see the tears in Eye Walker's eyes. He said he hoped
never to see her again.
Even though
Eye Walker could have killed Rabbit right then, she refrained, but cursed
him with these words, "From now on, you will call your fears and your
fears will come to you." Now Rabbit is the Fear Caller. He goes out
and shouts, "Eagle, I am so afraid of you." If Eagle doesn't hear
him, he calls louder, "Eagle, stay away from me!" Eagle, now hearing
Rabbit, comes and eats him.
As this story shows, Rabbit medicine people are so afraid of tragedy, illness,
disaster and "being taken" that they call those very fears to
them to teach them lessons. The keynote here is: what you resist will persist
- what you fear most is what you will become." Here is the lesson:
If you pulled Rabbit, stop talking about horrible things happening and get
rid of "what if" in your vocabulary. This may signal a time of
worry about the future or of trying to exercise control over that which
is not yet in form - the future. Stop now!"
I
could certainly see this rabbit tendency in myself, as I know that sometimes
I give so much attention and energy to what I'm afraid of that it has no
other choice but to find me. Spending the day in a graveyard was a good
way to ponder what is important in my life and how I want to choose to live
it while I'm here.
When I got
home that night, I looked on the forum to see what the "Fulltime
Graduating Class of 2005" was up to, and saw the following motto
posted on their website and thought "How appropriate to my day!"
"Life
is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely
in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather sliding in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out and proclaiming, 'Wow, what a ride!'"
- unknown
I could tell
that was a message the universe really wanted me to pay attention to because
the next email I received from Don, my best friend and greatest inspiration,
had that at the bottom under his signature. OK, Don, you always gave me
the best advice and you never, ever let me down - so all I've got to say
is: "Let the ride continue!"
Where
to now?
Another
Jacksonville cemetery page on Malia's
Miles site.
Read
an article I wrote about discovering life lessons in cemeteries at
RVTravel.com
