The Memorial Park: NEXT
It is early morning... and the dew is still clinging to the leaves of the many trees that beckon you onward. A new day is beginning and with that comes a new hope, a new vision and a renewed understanding of the cyclic nature of life and death. The song of birds surrounds you, the feel of sunshine warms you, a slight breeze lifts and blows through the trees that are now above you... evoking a sense of perpetual life, seen and unseen. As you pause to soak in all that nature has to offer the senses... you realize why you are here, and why this place exists.
Each tree has meaning, each tells the story of a life that had meaning but ended far too soon. Each symbolizes an individual that was only one of the many who succumbed to the fate of Lyme and associated tickborne diseases. As you move down the wide circular pathway from tree to tree... the magnitude of this loss begins to settle in. You are surprised by your own reactions... those of disbelief, of mourning and of sadness.
But then, something else begins to take hold and settles into a deeper place... it is a reaction that comes with time and with acceptance of the previous ones. It is a feeling of conviction, an understanding of truth, and a renewed faith that life, even with all of the sorrow and pain, is only a cycle. One of endings, but also one of beginnings.
- Melanie Reber
"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship.
But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease."- John Muir
© 2006 The National Lyme Disease Memorial Park Project
