Additional info on an old church

 

The church in Madison County NC has more information, so I'm giving a new post to cover what I've learned.

Here's the marker which stands near it.

"Early sessions of Madison County court were held in a log house on this site between 1851 and 1859. Bell Institute, a school operated by the Presbyterian Church USA, served the area. The school house and a dormitory stood a few yards west."

Location. 35° 51.037′ N, 82° 44.183′ W. Marker is near Marshall, North Carolina, in Madison County. Marker is at the intersection of Walnut Drive and Barnard Road (County Road 1151), on the right when traveling south on Walnut Drive.  

From Historic Markers

An enlargement of the area, showing "Academy St." and the area churches which are still open, but not the little unnamed church where the marker stands. I'm pretty sure the school house was on Academy St. or School St. which  is right off of it. The community is still known as Walnut.

And another great source of Madison County historic information, friend Vicki Lane commented in this way:

"It's not been a church for many years. I think it was Methodist or Presbyterian but not sure. It's a gorgeous building and was recently given to a local charity but what their plans for it are, I don't know. It has no rest rooms and, with the graveyard all around it, no way of putting in a septic tank."

I'm always interested in the background of an area...especially old buildings which even have historic markers in front of them!

And since the cemeteries are so near to this church, I imagine many of the ancestors buried there used to worship in the church.

 I offer this meditation which I came upon from "A Network for Grateful Living" which sends me a quote every day. The other day this came and was very appropriate for grieving the loss of life, which continues in so many unexpected places. 

A Meditation on Grief by Jack Kornfield

Calling all Grand Mothers and then some!

Calling All Grand Mothers

We have to live differently

or we will die in the same old ways.

Therefore I call on all Grand Mothers,

everywhere on the planet,

to rise and take your place

in the leadership of the world.

Come out of the kitchen

out of the fields

out of the beauty parlors

out of the television.

Step forward and assume

the role for which you were created:

To lead humanity to health, happiness and sanity.

I call on all the Grand Mothers of Earth

and every person who possesses

the Grand Mother spirit of respect for life

and protection of the young

to rise and lead.

The life of our species depends on it.

And I call on all men of Earth

to gracefully and gratefully stand aside

and let them (let us) do so.

Big thanks to...

~ Alice Walker, from “Hard Times Require Furious Dancing”

www.alicewalkersgarden.com

Art by Jenny Badger Sultan

www.jennybadgersultan.com

Alice Walker

________________________________________________

Republican Senators Who Receive Funding From the NRA

• Mitt Romney (Utah) $13,647,676
• Richard Burr (North Carolina) $6,987,380
• Roy Blunt (Missouri) $4,555,722
• Thom Tillis (North Carolina) $4,421,333
• Marco Rubio (Florida) $3,303,355
• Joni Ernst (Iowa) $3,124,773
• Rob Portman (Ohio) $3,063,327
• Todd C. Young (Indiana) $2,897,582
• Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) $2,867,074
• Tom Cotton (Arkansas) $1,968,714
• Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) $1,475,448
• Josh Hawley (Missouri) $1,391,548
• Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) $1,306,130
• Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) $1,269,486
• Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) $1,267,139
• Mike Braun (Indiana) $1,249,967
• John Thune (South Dakota) $638,942
• Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) $341,738
• Richard Shelby (Alabama) $258,514
• Chuck Grassley (Iowa) $226,007
• John Neely Kennedy (Louisiana) $215,788
• Ted Cruz (Texas) $176,274
• Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) $146,262
• Steve Daines (Montana) $123,711
• Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi) $109,547
• Roger Wicker (Mississippi) $106,680
• Rand Paul (Kentucky) $104,456
• Mike Rounds (South Dakota) $95,049
• John Boozman (Arkansas) $82,352
• John Cornyn (Texas) $78,945
• Ben Sasse (Nebraska) $68,623
• Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma) $66,758
• Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) $55,961
• Mike Crapo (Idaho) $55,039
• Jerry Moran (Kansas) $34,718
• John Barrasso (Wyoming) $26,989
• John Hoeven (North Dakota) $22,050
• Susan Collins (Maine) $19,638
• James Lankford (Oklahoma) $18,955
• Jim Risch (Idaho) $18,850
• Tim Scott (South Carolina) $18,513
• Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) $13,255

Source: Newsweek, 5.30.22.

______________________________________________________

Hymn for the Hurting

By Amanda Gorman

Everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed and strange,

Minds made muddied and mute.

We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.

And yet none of it is new;

We knew it as home,

As horror,

As heritage.

Even our children

Cannot be children,

Cannot be.

Everything hurts.

It’s a hard time to be alive,

And even harder to stay that way.

We’re burdened to live out these days,

While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.

This alarm is how we know

We must be altered —

That we must differ or die,

That we must triumph or try.

Thus while hate cannot be terminated,

It can be transformed

Into a love that lets us live.

May we not just grieve, but give:

May we not just ache, but act;

May our signed right to bear arms

Never blind our sight from shared harm;

May we choose our children over chaos.

May another innocent never be lost.

Maybe everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed & strange.

But only when everything hurts

May everything change.

Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman has an auditory processing disorder and is hypersensitive to sound. She also had a speech impediment during childhood. Gorman participated in speech therapy during her childhood and Elida Kocharian of The Harvard Crimson wrote in 2018, "Gorman doesn't view her speech impediment as a crutch—rather, she sees it as a gift and a strength."Gorman told The Harvard Gazette in 2018, "I always saw it as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my auditory and vocal skills, I became really good at reading and writing. I realized that at a young age when I was reciting the Marianne Deborah Williamson quote that 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure' 

Source: Wikipedia

 

Flowers and Einstein

 

Our apartment office is in an old house...with wrap around porches and rocking chairs which attract a group of residents almost daily. The porches have hanging planters, so everyone can enjoy seeing some colorful flowers.

Today's quote:

"Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think.

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world."

Thanks Albert Einstein

My springtime son

 

He's now thinking what he wants to do when he retires...in a few more years!

King High School Drama Club...he's wearing a headband, to the left of  "Chow! Cathy" in Chinese hat.

My wishes are for a very happy birthday this year, and for many more to come, Marty!

Today's quote:

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me."

Albert Einstein

Another collection of old photos

 

A mobile house, 1926 (did I share this already?)

I wish I had a photo of a young woman with that look in her eyes, talking on a telephone. But I don't.

So I will share on Sepia Saturday what I have, which is another group of old photos that have come my way through the internet.

Flat-Iron Building, New York NY

An early bookmobile.

Charles Ebbets, taking the legendary photo of workers having their lunch on a beam, 9.20.1932, while constructing the RCA building. Below, the photo that is legendary.

RCA Building by Charles Ebbets, 1932

The Farmington Quaker Meeting House, New York, 1816 (I find it hard to believe that photo is that old...much too clear. the process of photography didn't occur that early.

A family leaves Florida for the north during the Great Depression.

King High School Drama Club, including my son Marty, about 1978, Tampa FL. He's wearing a headband.

More book mobiles.

1915 Silk Lace worn by Queen Maud of Norway.

A Sami family circa 1900 in Norway

Baba Yaga with her house on chicken legs.

William Harley and Arthur Davidson, 1914

Coney Island

Flato family, around 1895, after whom the town of Flatonia, TX was named.

Albert Einstein and his wife, Pasadena CA, 1931

It's all our home...

1970 Earth Day poster by Walt Kelly (artist behind Pogo the cartoon.)

And the quote for today is by Albert Einstein...

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”

Goslings a fountain and stone facing on walls

 

I also walked on Wed. morning and they had finished the stones on the two walls facing the lake, but the ones that look out over the lawn and parking lot were still just regular concrete blocks. Oh well. Perhaps the rain on Mon. made them stop work. We're dodging more rain on Thurs. when this will be published.

Today's quote:

“I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.” Albert Einstein

Sharing with Wordless Wednesday

Church in Madison County NC

I'm adding this since Tuesday's news was so awful when I learned about Uvalde TX kids in a primary school being shot and killed by another young man with guns. 

First I am sad, and feel such despair that parents and teachers and staff of elementary school kids have again had this happen...AGAIN!! I wish I could send hugs to all those crying in Uvalde...this should never have happened, and it's terrible that it did. Many good people died yesterday...many children who had their whole lives ahead of them. I can't send thoughts and prayers any more, not one more time. 

Maybe Biden's anger at the politicians and the gun lobby will help some law get passed to restrict those automatic weapons. If they decide instead (probably) to put into effect a law that people with mental illness should not be allowed to have guns, I will not be happy at all.  Many people who have high anxiety or depression, or another diagnosis, may have a gun to protect their families and homes. They are not likely to go shoot kids at school. 

The problem is availability of guns. The Problem Is AVAILABILITY! That must have a law against it. MUST HAVE A LAW for our nation's children's sake.

 For this week's Skywatch Friday.

The trip to Vicki Lane's house...

We left Vicki's home and drove a different way, for a while anyway. I wish I knew the name of this sweet church!

The highway cut right between the church and one of its cemetaries.

There were more old graves beside the church as well.

I found it on Google Maps, and there even was a 3D shot from the road, much as mine.

...but still no name. It's at the junction of Walnut St/Rd. and something else.

Today's quote:

Your worth- it is an immeasurable and unchanging manifestation of your eternal and infinite oneness with the universe. It represents the cornerstone of the dual foundations of optimism and self-belief. Your worth cannot be taken from you or damaged by life's rigors, yet it can easily be forgotten or even actively ignored. By regularly acknowledging your self-worth, you can ensure that you never forget what an important, beloved, and special part of the universe you are.  

Daily Om

Going into OZ

We received an invitation to lunch at Vicki Lane's, and Susan knew how to get to her house! So I got to be a passenger on the drive to Vicki Lane's home. I'd attended a reading and discussion of her latest book in Black Mountain a few weeks ago, and afterward we'd had lunch with our mutual friend Susan. It was a lovely ride up through Madison County, including seeing a deer on a steep slope above a creek (too fast to photograph of course.)

The first house we saw as we drove up the gravel road...there were at least 4, maybe 5 before we met Vicki at her barn, where she was in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. She said that was necessary to reach her house, and I agreed completely after we lurched up over many rain breaks across the road.

Finally we were at Vicki's home. I'd seen so many snaps of different parts of her farm and home, it was somewhat a dream to have them flow together into a reality in which I could walk. It felt like being in Oz. (But just to be clear, Vicki isn't anything like Dorothy...in my mind anyway!)

She showed us her azalea which has three colors of blooms on it, on the side of the path.

Susan was ahead of me on the path...

What happened to this photo? I love the gate with the moon, so I'm keeping it. If Vicki wants to share a version of it which is more proper, that's her choice!

Vicki made fresh Focaccia bread to go with a fabulous mixed salad. Her kitchen was reminiscent of everyone's grandma's...if they'd been good cooks at least.

It was great to see the "Castle People" and the cabinet where Vicki's granddaughter plays with them.  We even were able to see some new art by Vicki and Josie

I enjoyed her pretty orchids...still blooming while mine have all stopped for the season.

We had a wonderful view of mountains and valleys, as well as a blue feeder for birds right outside the window. A Rose-breasted Grosbeak visited there.  While we ate we enjoyed learning more about Vicki's life, and just having great relaxed conversation.

Vicki Lane

Susan Moore

Vicki Lane and Barbara Rogers 

Desert was served in "Calamityware" which causes chuckles for those who look closely at the designs!

Such a beautiful vista of mountains from Vicki's porch! She's a wonderful gracious hostess, and has a wealth of information about the area where she lives. It was like having lunch with any author, just think, like L. Frank Baum talking about OZ. Yep, we went into another world. I asked Vicki if they'd named their home...like lots of older mountain homes. Apparently someone gave them a sign that says "No Fun." That's just about the opposite of my experience!

And I'll finish this lengthy report of our lovely luncheon visit with the Foxglove, which I think she's also shared on her blog. And if you don't already look at her blogs,  here's a link to it!

This is a photo of her mystery novels which take place in a location much like her own home (and Asheville.) And her latest (below) is a historical novel, taking place in Shelton Laurel and Marshall NC.

Today's quote:

Embrace the light and let it guide you

beyond the winds of desire.

There you will find a spring and 
nourished by its sweet waters
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.

 —Rumi