First Wildflowers, Janet Christiansen, and Cemeteries

All image credits Gary

I went for a run yesterday morning after sleeping late. Finally the roadside snow is vanishing. These snowdrops are the first flowers I've seen outside this spring.  These were at a farm, but right along the road, so they got no benefit of sheltered conditions.  Just a tough, beautiful plant that I was SO happy to encounter.

This second series of photos immediately below is from Brown's Mill Cemetery that I run through near the end of the 5 miler. I noted several tombstones tipped over, not by the work of vandals, but just by the heaving of frost. Winter is hard on tombstones, particularly old ones.

Such a dichotomy: life and death, beginning and endings. There is a particular grave in this cemetery of a woman--Janet Christiansen--who was murdered by her abusive husband (I've blogged about Janet before, most recently here). 

I often pause there and reflect, so sorry for what happened to her but grateful in a sense that from her tragic death some nugget of good can result: I am reminded to live each day to the fullest and not to take anything for granted.  

Because life can change in a heartbeat, literally.