A Sacred Place For Me

Cades Cove, Tennessee

 Deep in the Smoky Mountains Cades Cove is part of the National Parks System.

 It is also one of our families favorite places to visit. I find it to be a sacred place filled as it is with empty churches and grave yards. Families descended from the folks the land was purchased from can still bury their dead in the cemeteries. I am often sad when we visit because I know the people who sold their land to the parks service were desperate for money during a bad economy. Yet the land is now preserved for the entire country to enjoy as it was in the past. It is always bittersweet for me. Ya''ll know my mama is from Appalachia and I get emotional about the land and the people who lived there. 

Today I will will show you the Primitive Baptist Church.

 

I find God in the simple beauty of the wood of this building and in the fields, mountains, and streams of Cades Cove.

The Cove is an eleven mile driving loop. 

If you go in early you can ride the course on your bike which is very popular. 

The loop opens to cars at 10:00 AM.

We saw a bear, wild turkeys, deer and got ticks on us too. 

Tomorrow I will show images of wild flowers, streams, fences, and more at Cades Coves. 

Please come back.

Linking with Wow Us Wednesday's

joy and peace

Olive

~~One Angel more~~

The cemetery near our old house, almost at dusk.

I am fascinated by turn of the century graves and their engravings.

Joe shares my enthusiasm.

At the bottom of the one day old infants stone it says " One Angel more." 

How they loved him to inscribe the stone this way. 

It is so sweet and sad to me. 

Many child graves are in this cemetery and it is likely due to childhood diseases that are now eradicated by immunizations.

My former nursing staff, at the state prison, was appalled that we frequently visited cemeteries and took photos and that I once went to a garage sale at a funeral home (I bought the prettiest lamp ever). One of the prison doctors (he was from Africa, where voodoo was practiced) told me to stay out of cemeteries.  I have no fear of the dead. As a RN in a busy teaching hospital I was required to prepare and take dead bodies to the hospital morgue. If your patient died on your shift you knew you were going to the morgue. When you care for patients for weeks and weeks it is quite natural to give them this final respect. We never saw the undertakers. At smaller hospitals the undertakers arrive and the nurses never see a hospital morgue but not where I worked for nearly half of my life. 

Cheerful post today yes?

 I do find peace in cemeteries, go take a walk in one and snap some pics. 

You might concur.

may joy and peace surround you

Olive

Walk With Us In The...

Cemetery

It makes us think of Easter. Really it does. The large cross. The tombs.

"In the garden was a new tomb that had never been used." John 19:41

I did visit here last year so please forgive me if the images are similar. We like the Old City Cemetery a lot. It has many Civil War graves and Joe and I like to ramble around in it.

The little details are so sweet on the headstones. The children's graves are very sad. Many more children died one hundred and fifty years ago than they do today.

This is my header image and  how the roses were oriented on the stone. It was not planned. Hardly anything is.

This dove makes me think of He who is Risen The Prince Of Peace.

"They found the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb..." Luke 24:3

 

Joe and I look forward to a lively church service of about one thousand people in the morning and then one thousand more in a repeat service. The music will be stunning. We wept at Christmas {or I did}.

We wish you a lovely Easter with your family and friends.

grace surrounds us

Olive