Visit the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California: March 1 – May 12, 2013

18 Apr 2013 3 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Family Activities, Sightseeing In California Tags: ,

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When your eyes become acclimated to the hills awash with brilliant flower colors, you come back down to earth and realize this is heaven on earth. It is what I envision heaven to be.  As soon as I earn the two points I am short upon arrival, Saint Peter opens the opaque gates and flowers, flowers, flowers is the first impression and then it goes on from there.  This is not a lesson on heaven, Saint Peter or the pearly gates; it is just a sharing of joy and an invitation for you to enjoy the Carlsbad Flower Fields @ 5704 Paseo Del Norte, Carlsbad, CA.  The only kink unfortunately is for you to be prepared to stand in a long line to pay your admission fee. You would think on such busy days they would have more than one-person selling tickets.

Look! You are greeted and kindly asked to enjoy the fields.

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If you were aware and fortunate enough back when these homes were being built you would be able to enjoy this view all spring and early summer. What a backyard bonus.

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The fields are planted several weeks apart to insure months of flower productivity and viewing.

The lady in the next photograph was posing for another photographer and I joined in. She was so down in and among the flora, I envied her. I think there may be something illegal about posting her photo, so if this is you and you are opposed this posting, let me know, and I will immediately remove your photo from this post, but in the meantime, let us enjoy your loveliness, your enjoyment and endorsement of the flower fields.

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Visitors were walking around smiling and full delight was the order of the day.

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You still have time to enjoy the flowers and if you miss them this year, plan for a visit next year.

STANDING ON YOUR OWN GRAVE; ALIVE AND FULLY CONSCIOUS

08 Apr 2013 5 Comments

by Sheila Clapkin in Reflections Tags: , , , ,

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Fully aware that you are alive and well, you are ready to make the hike up the gently rolling hill leading to # 2042, your awaiting burial plot. You think you are standing on the very, very, very spot you will inhabit most probably for eternity.  You wait for some existential experience. Nothing out of the ordinary happens. You stare at the view. It is beautiful and serene. You still wait for something extraordinary to happen, something to give you a rush.  You’d get more of a rush from an espresso coffee than you have standing on your own GRAVE! What did you expect? Lots.

This spot of burial earth and funeral expenses are already paid for and inscribed in the annals of Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuary.  The money paid into this death account makes 6% interest as long as you live. Tell me where you can get that guarantee in today’s world?

When you are standing in the exact spot depicting your eternal resting place, you try and analyze death realizing nearly in the same thought that you have to analyze life first. Langston Hughes states that – “Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid”

Don’t we try to live to the fullest?  Don’t we tell ourselves to live, be free, smell the roses, be observant and enjoy? Constantly, so why then do we often times find our thoughts on death in a quagmire? Are we not conscious enough or too conscious? Is there a happy medium when discussing your life and death? No, it requires stamina and concentration. It requires the help of others.   If you start a discussion of life and death and our preparations for both, with friends soon, I imagine they will be inching away from you and bolting, maybe.

I imagined myself dead for a moment while I stood on my spot of land where I will be more than six feet under for perpetuity.  Oh, the view is spectacular. Perhaps I will enjoy this view from this well sought after internment spot.  I will wake each morning to sunshine, visitors, freshly mown grass, shadows and a sprawling view.  Heck I will.  I will be so far down under; I will not see, feel or hear anything. I will be gone.  Thanks for the hope of the view and the hope of eternity in this lovely paid for piece of real estate, but it just isn’t the truth. Standing on the spot where I will be interned meant nearly nothing to me except for the reality and eventuality of my death someday.  Big deal, I think about death as an eventuality every day whether I am standing on the exact spot or not. I don’t have to be there until some time after death, so I will dwell among the living, and when I visit those whose time has come to be permanent guests of the park while I am alive, I will exalt them and in death I will join them.

Please add your thoughts and ideas on this topic. I found it hard to be open and think of everything.