Can We Talk While I Make Soup?

Dear Friend, 

A couple weeks ago I stood in the produce section of the grocery store with cotton balls in my throbbing ears. 

What meals will I make?  I scanned the room, then meandered over to the organic section and began to analyze the offerings. 

Soup. Just soup until I feel like eating something else!

I selected ingredients for five batches of my current favorites: Borscht, Seafood Chowder, Bean with Bacon, Beef and Barley, and Thai Chicken with Rice.

I love the entire soup-making process. You could say it's my thing. I usually listen to an audio book while I chop vegetables. Sometimes I let my little ones help me with the peeling. 

Borscht 

Last time I wrote a post I believe I promised you an update on my ear issue -- I'm feeling much better and I can hear! I honestly didn't mind having the volume turned down a bit for a little while, but the ear infection was pesky, painful and persistent. I had to go to the doctor five times! I'm grateful to have that behind me.

A couple of my friends are on my heart right now  -- Heidi lost her eleven year old son recently; Tracey has Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome and is fighting for her life in ICU. Now and then as I'm going about my normal daily tasks, I suddenly feel a jab of sorrow and pray: God, help my friends! 

Seafood Chowder

I finished the House of Mirth by Edith Wharton a few days ago. I was relieved to be done with it. I found the main character, Lily Bart, nearly as exasperating as Flaubert's Madame Bovary. If anything moved me about the book it was Lily's vision on her deathbed of an infant sleeping beside her. All five of my babies slept with me until they were weaned. Nothing I've experienced in life has been sweeter. In fact, most of what I understand about God and love and worship came to me while nursing my little ones during those quiet night hours.

Bean with Bacon

I once saw Edith Wharton's signature in the guest book at Biltmore House.  That's the only thing I knew about Wharton until I read her book. 

Something else has been on my mind, something hard for me to spit out. Maybe I'll just bury it here in this unassuming post until I know how to say more . . .

I've recently come to the startling realization that for most of my formative years I was influenced by a cult leader.

This information feels both painful and liberating. It's taking me some time to sort things out.

I used to be so sure about every facet of life: what I should and should not wear, listen to, say, believe, be, do. Looking back I can see that gradually through the years I've shed many things -- like a reptile shedding scales. Some ideas have dropped off almost without my notice, others have been painfully removed, as if a scale has been ripped out leaving a raw bleeding spot in its place.

Up until recent news made me face the full reality, I viewed the cult leader as a distant grandfather figure -- someone I didn't agree with on every point, but someone safe and well-meaning -- certainly not what he was. Like many people, I didn't see the obvious. 

Beef and Barley

My Mimi was right about the cult leader's way of life when she said, "It's not for everybody."

Now I'd even go so far to say it's not for anybody!

I keep having this sensation like I'm skydiving. It's both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

"The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know." 

~Albert Einstein 

Thai Chicken with Rice

Ann Voskamp's blog has been helping me a lot lately.

This post by Keri Wyatt Kent has also helped. I love the line she has said to her kids through the years: "I love the person you are becoming." I've made a point of saying that to each of my kids lately. It's good for them and cathartic for me. I don't have to be afraid; I don't have to micromanage your soul. I love the person you are becoming!

These words imply that the future is bright—that I have great hope that they will grow into themselves. It says: you haven’t arrived yet, but I’m trusting the process. It reminds them that they are growing up and they are not you—that crucial process of differentiation that is essential for maturity. It also tells them that they don’t have to be just like mom or dad, or just like their older sibling. It simply says, You are becoming your own person, and that’s a good thing. It’s a way of telling them, “I believe in you!” without sounding quite so cheesy. I think it’s a phrase that instills confidence. And makes me feel more confident as a parent–even when it’s hard to let go.

Well now, I've got a lot off my chest today, haven't I!

Thanks for being there to help me process stuff. 

Love,

Adriana 

Finding Freedom Beneath the Unclouded Night Sky

Hello dear friends,

Have you ever taken a long stroll in the night?

One night last week I went for a walk at around 3AM. At first it was a little creepy, but after a while, it was wonderful. I meandered along. There was no moon. The stars were brilliant. 

I recognized a couple constellations: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Ursa Major is also known as the Big Dipper. Before the Civil War, runaway slaves referred to it as the Drinking Gourd. I live in a place where runaways likely passed through the night on foot in pursuit of freedom in the North. They looked to the Drinking Gourd as a guide. It is a symbol of freedom.

Crickets chirped. Owls hooted. Deer barked as I approached their beds. I captured this picture of two bucks butting heads. They didn't notice me for a long time. I stood still, hidden in the shadows. So much to see and experience in the night time!

I thought about Jane Eyre. Last I saw her, she was curled up on the heath in darkness:

Night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night: too serene for the companionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when his works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence.

If you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, unable to rest -- perhaps a night walk will help you sort things out. 

When I got back from my ramble, I slept like a baby til morning.

Peace & Joy,
Adriana

Road-trip to Ripley: Wrap Up

I haven't taken much time to post on my beloved Classical Quest this summer. As fall is approaching, I'm ready to get back into my groove and wrap up this three part series about my exciting trip to Ripley, Ohio!

A few months ago, I read Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I became intrigued by the novel's world-wide influence and fascinated by the person Abraham Lincoln referred to as "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great [Civil] war." I learned quite a bit about what it takes to become an influential writer from studying her life and asking myself this question: "How Did She Do It?"

While digging up stuff about the Beecher family, I learned about the town of Ripley, Ohio, which was a key location for the Underground Railroad. Many brave citizens of Ripley aided runaway slaves in their pursuit of freedom during the 1800s, the most famous of which was the Reverend John Rankin who lived in a small house on a hill overlooking town. Harriet Beecher Stowe was known to have made visits to the Rankin House. She based one of her characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin on the account she heard from Rev. Rankin of a real woman who sought shelter in his home. 

Of course, once I realized that a trip to Ripley would be feasible, I started making plans! My friend Christine from The Good, The Pure and The Lovely joined me along with her mother and three sons.

Upon arrival in Ripley, we set out to explore Front Street.

Then we drove up the rather steep hill to the Rankin House. In my last post, I described the first floor of the home as well as my favorite artifact on display -- Reverend Rankin's Bible.

We left off peering up the stairs, pondering the many weary souls who may have hidden themselves in the eaves of the small house to avoid capture.

Let us ascend the stairs together.

"Eliza's Settee" was designed for display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933-34.

View of the Ohio River

"One Hundred Steps to Freedom"

Related posts:

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Inspiration: A Visit to the Rankin House

Road-trip to Ripley: Front Street

How Did She Do It?

Road-trip to Ripley: Front Street

Part One

I recently took my first Classical Quest road trip to Ripley Ohio! I was joined by my dear friend Christine, her lovely mother, and three awesome children.

Ripley is located on the Ohio River about fifty miles east of Cincinnati. Almost two centuries ago, it was the epicenter of the abolitionist movement in Ohio. Ripley's courageous past was an inspiration to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her character, Eliza, was based on the true story of a woman who escaped a life of slavery by crossing the Ohio River on ice floes with her child in her arms.

 During the Civil War, the Ohio River separated free states from slave states.

What happened in that little river town nestled in a majestic valley would forever change a nation and aspire to rank as pivotal and seminal moments in the heritage of a free people. That place is Ripley-Freedom's Landing in Ohio.  ~ Judge Thomas F. Zachman

Inscription on the monument at Freedom's Landing.

View of Front Street which faces the river.

When you walk the streets of Ripley and climb the steps of Liberty Hill you are on hallowed ground.  Courage, compassion, and moral outrage against slavery dwelled in the hearts and minds of men and women who lived and walked here. Their words and deeds are not of our time, but have shaped our time and their stories are stories for all time and all mankind. ~ Judge Thomas F. Zachman

A view of Kentucky, which was slave territory during the setting of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

"A little town with a big heart."

Peering above Liberty Hill is the Rankin House -- a very important part of the Underground Railroad. It  is often referred to as a "lighthouse for freedom".

Home of Thomas Collins, "Chief conductor on the Underground Railroad"

"Thomas Collins,

Englishman, cabinet-maker, chief conductor on the Underground Railroad. Its portals were always open. Through this door stole refugees innumerable. The night was never too dark, nor the journey too long for its owner to issue forth, leading the helpless across the hills to freedom."

"Through this door stole refugees innumerable"

... I am reminded of the most important incident that ever took place at Ripley, during all the years of the activities of the abolition group. Strange as it may seem, no one placed any importance to the episode when it occurred, because we did not know what was in the mind of Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was she who took the incident and wove it into the pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin, making it one of the most appealing and forceful attacks of this epoch-making book.... I am referring to that incident of Eliza with her babe in arms crossing on the ice, chased by dogs to the water's edge. This all really happened, and it took place at Ripley... I have heard the story directly from Rev. John Rankin, to whom Eliza told her story within an hour after she had made the crossing, as she sat by his fireside in his hilltop home.  John Parker -- freed slave who became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. His home is on Front Street.

...nerved with the strength such as God gives only to the desperate, with one wild cry and flying leap, [Eliza] vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore, on to the raft of ice beyond. It was a desperate leap -- impossible to anything but madness and despair... 

...The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and creaked as her weight came on it, but she staid there not a moment. With wild cries and desperate energy she leaped to another and still another cake; -- stumbling -- leaping -- slipping -- springing upwards again! Her shoes are gone -- her stockings cut from her feet -- while blood marked every step; but she saw nothing, felt nothing, till dimly, as in a dream, she saw the Ohio side, and a man helping her up the bank...

The Signal House -- "a historic home with rooms overlooking the Ohio River. Legends tell of its involvement in the Underground Railroad. A lantern from a skylight in the attic signaled Rev. John Rankin that the waterfront was safe to transport slaves to freedom." Now a Bed & Breakfast.

..."I'd be glad to do something for ye," said he; "but then there's nowhar I could take ye. The best I can do is to tell ye to go thar," said he, pointing to a large white house which stood by itself, off the main street of the village. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Window on the rooftop of the Signal House -- clearly visible from the Rankin House on the hill above.

The proprietor said these roses were prettier a few weeks ago. I thought they were still picture-worthy.

A view of Front Street facing East.

In my next post, I'll show pictures of my visit to the Rankin House, where Harriet Beecher Stowe was once a guest.

Other posts in this series:

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Inspiration: A Visit to the Rankin House

Road Trip to Ripley: Wrap-Up