to transition into the upcoming december posts i have a little batch of photos left that i shot on a short visit at my childhood home. i went for a walk with my mom through our little village and rediscovered some of my favourite places growing up. it's strange how some things of the past often do not or undergo very little change. the church & its graveyard haven't changed much, it's only grown older and a little more dilapidated, but it's still the place i always loved to roam around, because of obvious reasons ( for me that would be that i was fascinated with death & peaceful places pretty much early on ;) )
the glasshouse above is actually not on fire, but the evening sun was just going down that moment and happened to throw the best optical illusion onto the reflecting windows. the structure is situated right next to the cemetery and is another place i always loved visiting, especially for flower/plant purchases. i am strangely attracted to greenhouses, just the way everything is so cozy in there and how the outside light falls into/onto them and creates life inside. and i'm also a sucker for huge glass facades so what can one do other than to simply admire them :)
st. vitus
what always fascinated me most about the village cemetery was the fact that it actually is composed like a park. i think only about 1/3 of the graveyard is occupied by actual graves. the rest just feels like a park & i think that's why us kids always loved to hang and play around here. ( okay i was friends with some religious kids back in my childhood and some of them were living around here - a few of them actual children of the local priest and you just used what you had on hand, which was of course this magnificent place to roam around in ). i felt always very at home around here, never scared of possible ghosts or skeleton hands reaching out of the earth. never have i felt anything different than joy and fascination, which i guess transitioned into my adult life. even in recent days a cemetery is still the one place i'm seeking out for grounding myself. it's not a scary place for me at all, even at the few burials i've been too i never felt intimidated or wanted to get the heck out of it. strangely, whenever i attented a burial i actually experienced the most beautiful moments, like sunrays shining through trees illuminating the graves, or people hugging each other and sharing memories and warm words. of course burials are mostly sad happenings, but i think they kind of make you more attentive & mindful to what a gift life can be. little moments like this changed my perspective pretty early on in life and i am truly thankful that i am not scared of death at all and actually embrace & welcome it into my mind all the time. for me cemeteries are cozy places, something to turn to whenever you need a little away time of life's perils.
always loved this grave, but unfortunately it's in a pretty bad shape these days, wonder how long it will stand the test of time.
fenced in family graves. no member of my family is buried on here, and i guess it will probably not be the case in the future, as both of my parents expressed the wish to not be buried. my mother does not want a grave we kids have to tend to, but asked to be burned, without an actual urn burial. she likes the idea of an anonymous nature burial, scattered all over meadows or the sea or in woods. my father is a little more traditional, but i have the strong feeling that he considers something equal, on various occasions he expressed an opinion on that. my brother lives in erfurt and will probably not return to our village. the same counts for me, and while i do love cemeteries, i myself share the same views with my mother. especially since i have the strange feeling that there will never be someone who will mourn me, since i don't plan to start a family or going to have a spouse of some sorts. and i truly love the idea of being a nourishment to nature's plants & trees & insects. plus, you are not a burden of any kind, no one has to look after your grave and groom it.
the church with one of its two outside staircases & world war I memorial.
there are some really old graves on the site and of course those are the ones i'm fascinated by the most. this one dates back to the early 1800s.
the village's coat of arms chiseled in stone. it stands outside of the cemetery next to the sheltered housing unit which was renovated a few years ago and turned into on of the most beautiful buildings of the village. especially the gate made out of wood is mentionable, which depicts a sun, after which the building was named. unfortunately i don't have a good picture of that due to the light getting shoddier.
and then the day really went out with a fire, the fire of the sky. my mom & me stood for quite a while to marvel at this beautiful evening spectacle.
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