Gods House

I’ve wanted to stop and photograph this little white Church for many years. It kind of sits there, in the middle of nowhere, like a very modest version of the Church in the Guns N Roses video, “November Rain”.

The Cleveland Union Chapel C1855 is located beside the Midland Highway in Tasmania, at Cleveland, south of Campbell Town. If you blinked, you would probably miss it, an unassuming collection of a just few homes, a pub, and this Church with a small cemetery, set off the road behind a white picket fence, on a straight bit of road. There is no reason to stop. Always in a hurry to go somewhere, or get back home.

Fittingly, last Sunday, I searched Gumtree – an Australian online marketplace, once again with little hope fof finding a canopy for my Ford Ranger Supercab – which aren’t that common. I’d been on the hunt for several years and only seen one other canopy listed, in the far north of the state, at a time I couldn’t drive there. This time, I dropped all plans, contacted the seller, offered his asking price in cash if he could help me fit it. We had an agreement, and off I set for a two and a half hour drive to Longford. I threw my camera in, just in case.

The Universe has been delivering in spades the past few weeks! Bioluminescence, the best aurora I’ve seen, and I even shocked myself when I blurted to a girl I’d just met that she had beautiful eyes – that is NOT me! I still don’t know her name, lol.

After fitting the canopy, I headed home with a big grin on my face in the mid-afternoon light and stopped to take a photo of my prize, before continuing on.

I grabbed a coffee and sweetie treat at a Campbell Town bakery, fully content, heading back south to the beach. As I approached the Church, I was so close to not stopping, but the 5.40pm light was so lovely, I was in no rush, so I figured why not!

Now, I’m not religious, but do feel some kind of larger universal force is at play and I do love chasing frequencies of light and sound – through photography and music. Would you believe the door of the Church was open. It would seem for some time.

So I entered God’s humble little house, seems as it appeared I had been invited. It seemed the cleaners had been before, though they didn’t appear to have cleaned. There was bottled water, well before it’s best before date – does water go off? Surely this was Holy water? lol. I didn’t take a bottle.

It appeared God likes trapping and collecting swallows – not sure if they had done Him wrong, but there were at least four dead ones, and I swear, I did not put this one here!

Still life, or still lifeless …

There were two small, old organs inside, neither of them seemed to work.

The acoustics in this small chapel were actually amazing. Standing on the preacher’s pulpit, I felt compelled to sing a hymn quite loudly of gratitude that flowed from within but from nowhere and filled the empty space with reverence. I could not repeat it, living and absolutely lost in an astounding moment. I am glad no one was around but maybe the lingering lost and forgotten souls of the departed laid to rest nearby. Thank you Universe.

There was no fancy stained glass in this simple chapel, just very old glass that distorted the view outside with it’s irregular thickness, like it had melted in the frames.

I am so glad I did not just drive by this time. It was a special moment, in a special place. The here and now where I was meant to be. I was quite pleasantly surprised the place had not been vandalised, not a drop of graffiti. Perhaps everyone has been too busy. Rushing. Rushing through life with scant disregard for any meaning except the noise in their own head drowning everything meaningful out.

There’s something very grounding about a cemetery. It reminds you that life is finite. But is your soul? Your essence? Does that frequency continue on in the universe? Like light and music and magic? Maybe if you find your correct harmony in this life, it does. Maybe if you let go of everything else and find yourself, you find forever? Maybe.

No one’s come back to tell us. Thanks for reading my late night ramblings, I hope you enjoyed the light and moments captured. I could have gone to the beach tonight, but here I am, throwing this out into the universe. It found you, thanks for dropping by. Live your best life 😀

Oh, and that GnR video …