Hedgehog's History: Church at the corner of Past and Present

This will be exceptionally image heavy.

I set out from my parents' house, which I am not showing you, on my sad excuse for a bike, which you have here.

And also, be careful about riding a bike with faulty brakes down a stupidly steep road.


At the end of the road, where asphalt turns into gravel and grass, there lies an old church.

The beige stucco walls raise softly from the hill, nestled gently between birch and oak, maple and pine.

The church was officially opened in 1799, and was in continuous use until 1997, when the church was closed due to the danger of the roof collapsing. It was restored in 2005, but is no longer in official use.

As I walked through the cemetery, looking at names of people long since past, I thought of the strangeness of this life of ours.

 
Cemeteries are really odd places. In the ground rest the remains of individuals who no longer talk to us with voices, while in the trees swallows, thrushes, starlings, and pigeons are courting and building nests in order to raise another generation.

"How improbable are WE? How strange, and how lovely, it is to be anything at all." - John Green here

 I am always inspired by contrasts and as I wipe sweat from my forehead and make my way back to my bike, I am inspired by the contrast between the old church and the modern railroad and highway within hear distance. I am curious about how Life and Death walk hand in hand in a cemetery. The nesting of birds and the names of people long since silenced by age.

The last years' Winter storms have caused much destruction, but Nature still finds a way to be attractive.

Even the leg numbing stupidly steep hill back to my parents can't take away from how beauty can be found in destruction.

This is life for me. Life and Death, Destruction and Creation, Past and Present.

DFTBA