Too Small and Too Busy

I have learned that if I am giving directions to our house I can't say "it's across the street from the cemetery".
Not only is it not helpful, I do not want to use the word "cemetery", it creeps me out.
I would much rather say, park, we live across the street from the park.
Fact: Creepy or not, it is the closest landmark.

I can see the wheels start turning and the blank stare.
I quickly start to add other landmarks like the tiny church right next door, hoping not too lose them.
Still, nothing registers.
I start throwing out things that I hope will hook them like, if you get to the stop light you have gone too far and there is a white car and white pick-up truck parked in the car port.


Alas, no one ever notices the church or the cemetery and have no idea what I am talking about.
I often wonder, why don't people see them, they drive past them all of the time?
Are people really that busy?
Are they really too small?

Every once and awhile, I glance out the front window and notice a random car sitting in the tiny church parking lot.
Without fail, I wonder, why is that car there today, it isn't Sunday.
Next thought, is today Wednesday?
Then I remember, oh, the cemetery.
My heart sinks.
It stops me every time.
They are there because someone died.

When we moved in our house it seemed creepy living across the street from a cemetery.
I hate to admit it but, unless I see a car parked there, I don't even notice it anymore either.
I don't even find it creepy.
It is now a good reminder that we need to stop.
Stop, even if it isn't Sunday or Wednesday and spend some time thinking, honoring and reflecting.
Our lives are short and go by quickly.
Hopefully, we make choices that allow our lives to matter so that the only reminder of our lives isn't a tiny little cemetery that no one notices.
It is my hope that my life will be a "place of direction for those who are looking" while I am alive.