During this streak of beautiful autumn days, I have taken time after my yoga classes to walk through historic Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum. I love walking through this spot filled with Dayton history, seeing the names of people who were instrumental in the development of the city, walking through the autumn colors on the majestic trees, seeing the city views, and always stumbling across something I haven't previously seen.
On a very large family gravestone was this beautiful metal work with a rampant lion and a banner proclaiming Vive Ut Vivas. This took me way back to my high school Latin class with Miss Davis who was very strict, demanding, had the highest expectations for all of her students, and didn't smile too often. I remembered "vivere" was the Latin word for "to live" so with that basic knowledge and looking at the beautiful artwork I figured this had something to do with living life to the fullest. That was a pretty good guess.
Literally, Vive Ut Vivas means "live that you may live," or live life to the fullest. Maybe after all these years, this brought a heavenly smile to Miss Davis.
All of those little bits of knowledge shape our understanding of the world around us.
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