Angels

At the family gravesite, a large, gray stone is inscribed with the family surname. At each end of this marker, a stern stone angel keeps watch. Not long ago, as I pulled weeds and tidied, a thought came to me that those now under the earth had all hoped and longed for a good and peaceful life … hopes and longings that they pass on to the living … now mine to keep and tend. As I walked from the gravesite, the stone angels appeared markedly different … not as dour or forbidding … even the hint of a smile … but I kept walking.