Reflections from Gift From the Sea

I'm rereading Anne Morrow Lindberg's Gift From the Sea for the tenth time. It's like the Bible in that no matter how many times you read it, you'll find something new every time. This morning's reading had this (she's talking about the marriage relationship) jumping out at me: "There is also a dead weight accumulation, a coating of false values, habits, and burdens which blight life. It is this smothering coat that needs constantly to be stripped off, in life as in relationships."

For several years now I've been decluttering our physical space. I think I noticed this paragraph above because maybe now it's time to simplify and clean out our marriage relationship. I'm not getting rid of him (ha) but would like to become more friends again. Now that all but one of our children are gone, it'll be easier. We don't have to wait to talk or shout to be heard over the din. We definitely have a 'smothering coat that needs to be stripped off' but how to go about it is puzzling to me. I think I'll treat it as an on-going, never-ending project and have my checklist made and ready.

Anne again, "One learns to accept the fact that no permanent return is possible to an old form of relationship, and more deeply still, that there is no holding of a relationship to a single form. This is not a tragedy but part of the ever-recurrent miracle of life and growth."

We've come a long way and shared a lot since we were married 37 years ago come August 28; five living children, three in heaven due to early miscarriages, moving cross country and back, building a house, home educating five children for 28 of those years, having three of those children seriously injured at different times and ages, three children married, six grandchildren, etc. We've had a good time together, and hopefully, God will grant us more years to try and perfect this thing called marriage.

After The Rant

After my rant of a few days ago, I thought I'd give you an update. I'm in a much better frame of mind today. The reason being that my DH took our daughter everywhere she needed to go yesterday. I didn't leave my house one time. Woo Hoo! I got an amazing number of things accomplished; mostly housework, ironing, repairing, and the like. I have a hard time trying to create something when the house is a mess. My goal this summer is to decrease my stack of clothing repairs to be made, ironing basket all ironed, and all superfluous papers put away/thrown away. I'm making good progress. I'd dominate these things if I could stay home every day. I hope that by the time school starts in August I'm ready to tackle some big projects.

I downloaded Dracula by Bram Stoker on my Iphone and listened to it while ironing and repairing. I really enjoyed it and was surprised by the Christian overtones. It reminded me of Frankenstein in that way. I'm searching for a movie that closely stays with the Dracula book. The Frankenstein movie with Kenneth Branaugh did, and I thought it was really, really good. I'm trying to listen to more classics while I do my housework. Right now I'm downloading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. My husband and I took a trip a few years ago to the Hudson River Valley in New York state. We went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and visited Irvings house on the river. It was the cutest, romantic cottage. I love the cottage architecture from the mid-1800's. It reminded me of Sir Walter Scott's house in Scotland; same sort of feel.

P.S. The cottage in the photo isn't Washington Irving's but the caretaker's cottage at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia where our son is attending. The books are in the library there. I'm not planning on reading deep philosophical tomes anytime soon. I'll let Dylan, our scholarly son, give me the auditory, abbreviated version. Right now I'm settling for lighter fare; like Dracula.

The Historic Church Calendar

"...the church calendar, if examined briefly, is entirely structured around the Story of Jesus. That is, the church calendar is a gospeling event too.

The church calendar is all about the Story of Jesus, and I know of nothing - other than regular soaking in the Bible - that can "gospelize" our life more than the church calendar. It begins with Advent, then Christmas, the Epiphany, then After Epiphany, the Lent, then the Great Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Paschal Vigil on Saturday evening), Easter, and then After Pentecost - with Ordinary Time shaping the calendar until Advent. Ordinary Time is the time to focus on the life and teachings of Jesus. Anyone who is half aware of the calendar in a church that is consciously devoted to focusing on these events in their theological and biblical contexts will be exposed every year to the whole gospel, to the whole Story of Israel coming to its saving completion in the Story of Jesus."

~ The King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight

Hymn Singing

I've been trying to be more mindful during our church's worship services and really notice the words I'm saying and singing. Some things I've been practicing during this Lenten season are helping. I'll share more about those later.

We, as Protestants, have such a rich heritage in the hymns that have come down through the centuries. One that has meant a lot to me recently is Rise Up, Oh Men Of God.

The first verse says: "Rise up, oh men of God. Have done with lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength, to serve the King of Kings."

I've been trying to 'have done with lesser things' and it's making a difference in my mental state which is affecting my outward demeanor. I'm not angsting anymore and am more joyful and calm.

I'm really enjoying this season leading up to Easter. I'll tell you tomorrow what I've been doing.

Going Home

“It is England we love, we Americans,” she had said to her father. “What could be more natural? We belong to it—it belongs to us. I could never be convinced that the old tie of blood does not count. All nationalities have come to us since we became a nation, but most of us in the beginning came from England. We are touching about it, too. We trifle with France and labour with Germany, we sentimentalise over Italy and ecstacise over Spain—but England we love. How it moves us when we go to it, how we gush if we are simple and effusive, how we are stirred

imaginatively if we are of the perceptive class. I have heard the commonest little half-educated woman say the prettiest, clumsy, emotional things about what she has seen there. A New England school ma’am, who has made a Cook’s tour, will almost have tears in her voice as she wanders on with her commonplaces about hawthorn hedges and thatched cottages and white or red farms. Why are we not unconsciously pathetic about German cottages and Italian villas? Because we have not, in centuries past, had the habit of being born in them. It is only an English cottage and an English lane, whether white with hawthorn blossoms or bare with winter, that wakes in us that little yearning, grovelling tenderness that is so sweet. It is only nature calling us home.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle

Have you ever gone to a place and immediately felt like you were home? I have felt that way in England and Scotland. You don't even have to go there, though, to feel that resonance. You can read a book set in a certain place and feel the same way. I found this quote by the author of The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and The Little Princess that describes this feeling. I think there's something in our genetic code that makes us feel at home in certain places. Too many people have described this happening for it not to be true.

Is it just a coincidence that most of my ancestors come from England, Ireland, and Scotland? I've never been to Ireland, but I bet I'll feel the same way there. I love the music; absolutely love it. Whenever I hear Celtic music, I feel it down to the core of my being. It draws me, it says, "Come home." I want to. Someday I hope to live somewhere in the British Isles for a month or two. I wonder if I'd miss the US if I did that? I'd love the chance to find out!

Samuel Johnson and Me

Reading James Boswell's Life of Johnson is on my bucket list. I hope to start it this fall. Here's a photo taken at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Shop in London where Mr. Johnson and I hung out one afternoon. That's him in the painting. This pub was also a favorite hangout of Charles Dickens.

Wouldn't you have liked to have been a barmaid and listen in on the conversation around the table when these literary giants came in for a pint?

Burleigh House, My Ancestral Home

This grand estate is Burleigh House in Stamford, England. It was built for William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Queen Elizabeth I's right hand man.

You may recognize it from the Keira Knightley version of Pride & Prejudice. In that movie it belonged to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Collins' patroness. It was called Rosings and the scene at the dinner table was filmed inside Burleigh House.

During a trip a few years ago, my husband and I serendipitously stumbled upon this great house. Inside was a display of the clothes that Lizzy Bennett and Mr. Darcy wore in the 2005 movie version. From the town of Stamford, the walk across the park to get to this house was probably close to a mile.

Lord Burleigh's daughter, Countess Anne, my 12th back maternal great grandmother, married Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, who is a very good contender named in the mystery that is William Shakespeare. Some think that Shakespeare was his pen name and that he actually wrote all the work attributed to the bard. Will we ever know? In 1596, Edmund Spenser wrote a dedicatory verse to Edward de Vere in Fairie Queen, his tribute to Queen Elizabeth. Anne is buried in Westminster Abbey.

And to think that I walked where my ancestors walked, saw their house and personal items...it's just too much to take in. I'll have to go back now that I know the history of our family.

Edward owned the ship Bonaventure which shipwrecked in Bermuda. That story later became Shakespeare's (or Edward's) The Temptest. The craziest thing about that wreck is that on board was a man named Jordan, who was my husband's ancestor! I guess the world has always been smaller than we thought.

My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Deaver. It was changed from de Vere when my ancestors came to America. It's of French origin and has been traced back to 1045. Another de Vere ancestor fought alongside William the Conqueror in the battle of Hastings in 1066.

Sorry to ramble, but I just love this stuff! It just makes history come alive. I'm trying to engage my soon-to-be teenager with our family stories hoping to fan into flame her smouldering interest in history. Wish me luck!

Old Sheldon Church Ruins...Yet Again

Yes, I'm obsessed by this place. I know I've posted pics of this church many times, but you haven't seen these, because I only took them last Saturday. My daughter had a horse show about five miles away, so I couldn't resist running over the trying, once again, to get better shots. I'm pretty happy with these.





The mosquitos about ate me up! Goodness gracious, little bitty ones with a big buzz and a bigger bite. I was slappin' with one hand and tossing my hair back and forth to keep them off my face and neck and snapping photos with the other hand. It would have been quite comical if anyone had been watching, which they weren't. It's a pretty isolated place.

I heard that the church was covered in plaster at one time so that it was white. You can still see patches of it on the interior. I wonder why it wasn't rebuilt after the War of Northern Aggression or the Civil War to you Yankee readers. There wasn't anything 'civil' about it except that it was on native and not foreign soil.

I hope to get over here on the second Sunday after Easter some year and participate in the annual service. I think the St. Helena Episcopal Church in Beaufort, SC does it. I've seen pics of it on their website. How cool would that be?

Jamestown Virginia Images

Since Jamestown is so close to Williamsburg, we make it part of our annual fall foray into Colonial Virginia. These photos were taken of the chapel there. I particularly love the symmetry of the hanging bells. The baptismal font is from the 1600's, I think. Click on it to be able to read the verse hanging above.

It's a great place for children as well as adults to learn about colonial history. Next time I'll post photos from the glassblower's hut.