Travel South

I started this while sitting at the Montgomery airport, awaiting a slightly late flight, catching up on some reading on and off line. I've just been in Auburn, AL, with my husband for a conference on university architecture for university architects. It's his conference, but they have a guest program that was wonderful. It's a week long conference, but I am leaving two days early because I was anxious about being gone so long with a home improvement project just beginning (new windows, roof, and railing for the sunroom) and the kids at home, but part of me wishes I stayed until Saturday with my husband ... except they have a tropical storm rolling in from the Gulf, so weather delays could extend his trip. 

Auburn has a beautiful campus, which has grown exponentially in the last decade or two.  We have some friends who are Auburn alumni, and they drove a few hours south to join us for dinner last night. They pointed how much has changed since they were students in the 90's. Like everything built recently, it's bigger, shinier, sleeker. The new architecture blends well with the old, sometimes complementing, sometimes copying. There are some older structures from the 70s-90s that look dated and tired because they were built quickly to look new without reference to the historic references, but those are being renovated or torn down to make way for newer buildings that follow a master plan with more consistent design guidelines, as well as more requirements to support sustainability. 

Our trip included began with a rerouted flight to Atlanta because of bad weather (instead of the originally scheduled Montgomery). Since I had never really visited the city except for the airport, we decided to spend Sunday morning there instead of heading straight to Auburn. After a late night/early morning arrival, we slept in. We ended up going to Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, which is the oldest church serving the Black Catholic Community in Atlanta.  Needless to say, the Gospel music was incredible, and the Mass was full of vitality. 

Just blocks away from the church is the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Park, which includes a visitor center with artifacts from his life and from other civil rights figures including his wife Coretta, whose influence is underappreciated. His birth place is just down the street, but it was closed to visitors, as was the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was pastor.  We spent some time at the reflecting pool and tomb where he and his wife Coretta are interred. It was moving monument, but in need of some repair and full of potential to be something more educational and transformative. 

Burial monument for Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

MLK's suits and tie tacks and cufflinks. A miraculous medal is among the accessories in the jewelry box 

 

MLK's birthplace. He was born at home here.

 

The Ebenezer Baptist Church

 

Scenes from the Auburn campus:

Samford Hall, one of the early buildings and most iconic on campus

 

This was at one time the university president's home

The stadium holds 87000 people. About 35K students attend Auburn.

Met this baby screech owl at the Auburn Raptor Center, a rehabilitation center as well as home to the war eagle.

 

Retired War Eagle #7 Nova

On our third day in Alabama, the guest program participants were treated to a tour of murals - but rain made this a bus tour instead of a walking tour, which would have been lovely. The tour ended up in the neighboring town of Opelika, where we also drove up and down some blocks of beautiful Southern homes representing various architectural styles. I'm sure this town has been featured in Southern Living Magazine.  The gardens were gorgeous, and many of the homes had deep front porches featured blue ceilings, comfortable furnishings, and big, flourishing baskets of ferns and other plants. 

We lunched at a place called Botanic that was a restaurant and a nursery and greenhouse. A dining and plant experience. 

A magnolia mural in Auburn

An original 1907 vintage Coca-cola mural in an old hardware store in Opelika

 

Scenes from Botanic

  

On Wednesday the guests at the conference visited the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy museums in Montgomery Alabama. Our first stop was the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. This was a much larger and impactful experience than the MLK, Jr. National Park. The Legacy museum features three locations: the monument, a sculpture park, and a museum. I missed the museum because I had to head to the airport. At the Memorial, metal coffin-sized rectangular prisms recorded the names and dates of men and women who were lynched across the United States. Other areas included narratives describing the victims' stories. It was a somber reminder of the darkness and ignorance that can cloud the human heart and be perpetuated across time and place. Fortunately, goodness and justice can also be spread across time and place, as memorials such as this seek to do.

 

 

  

 

The second part of the tour to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is reached by river ferry down the Alabama river following part of the path that the slave trade followed to a small island. We got caught in a torrential downpour and the sculpture park does not allow photos except at the very end and very beginning, so I didn't take many photos of this part of our tour. The website includes a few, but many were exceptionally beautiful and moving. The island is dedicated to the story of slavery in the south. There were incredible statues and reproductions of slave train cars and relocated slave quarters.  Stone plinths included poetry and slave narratives. The experience was more moving than I can describe here. I wish I remembered some of the sculpture artists' names to share their work. 

The entry to the Freedom Monument 

This wall contains the family names of over 100000 freed slaves. Like the names of many who were lynched, many slave names remain undocumented. 

While this part of the trip was somber, it was also inspiring. Suffering causes deep and lasting wounds, but resilience and the beauty that comes from survival testify to the capacity of the heart to rise and to continue to love.  Many of the stories at the Freedom Monument recounted the strong familial bonds that persisted even when families were forcibly separated and sold apart. 

I am so grateful I decided to attend this conference. I was a bit reluctant to commit back in the spring, and now I partly wish I had continued with the experience. The kids - meaning my 22, 20 and 12 year old - were fine and kept busy at home working and attending Totus Tuus (the 12 year old helped with the younger kids in the morning and attended the middle school session in the afternoon, so she was worn out by the end of the day.) But life moves on, and we have a full summer ahead. 

 Again I am reminded that every region has natural beauty, historical significance, and wonderful people. One of the many pleasures of travel. 

Another is the peace that settles in your bones when you return home, ready to rest and reconnect.

Riding the train

Hello, June. 

The month of May was typically full. I meant to document more of this busy season, but somehow here it is June 9th, and so much has happened that I'm not quite sure where to begin. 

Perhaps I'll work backwards:

On the first of June, my husband and I celebrated 30 years of marriage.  How can we have been married so long, when our wedding seems like last year, our children's babyhood feels only months ago, teenagers ruled the house just last week, and it still feels like we are learning to love? Time is so relative! 

June 1, 1996

Although we marked this milestone with good cheer, including a Veuve Clicquot toast (my fave because of Babette's Feast, although usually we toast with Cook's, which is what we had at our wedding), it was an understated celebration, like many of our anniversaries. We have a busy summer ahead - see prior post. We'll be celebrating many times over. My gift to my husband was saying yes to spending more money than we should have on a piece of original art offered at our daughter's school auction - so it served a good cause. My husband surprised me with a gift of a necklace with seven pearls, one for each of the kids.  Although we had said the art work was our anniversary gift, I actually love this necklace - and it was on sale! Even better!  My husband has not always had the best of luck predicting what I like in the way of jewelry - not that I don't like what he buys; I just don't always fit the style he choses... This time his choice was spot on.

We were also going to go out to eat to a restaurant we haven't tried, but our college daughter returned home from college that afternoon. Her return was delayed because she qualified for the NCAA regional meet in the 800. Because of that we spent a couple days on the road driving down to Lexington, Kentucky, and back to watch her run. A 5.5 hour drive one way for a 2 minute race.  She had a stellar season, dropping 6 seconds from her PR last year, but she didn't quite hit her PR in this race, and competition was tough to move on to the finals. Fortunately, she has the potential to get stronger next year. Although she raced a lot in high school, her training mileage was low, and she hasn't burnt out like so many athletes who compete at elite levels at young ages.  

Needless to say, we stayed more than 2 minutes at the meet and watched some of the other races, including her teammate's mile run, but we did not spend time exploring UK or Lexington. I love track meets, and this one was large with elite runners running at their peak. I love watching the strength and speed of these athletes, all women on this day.  Other people can have their football and basketball games, but I'll take a track and field meet any day!

We also added a little extra driving to our travel time to stop in to visit our granddaughter, who keeps getting cuter than ever, and we spent the night and morning with my parents before making the return trip in time to get back for school/work. A full couple of days.

I do love a road trip. Just days before our jaunt down south, I returned from a Memorial Day road trip to Montreal with some fellow faculty members on a pilgrimage to see the St. Joseph Oratory and shrine to St. Andre Bessette, and the burial place/shrine to Kateri Tekakwitha.

This was a 14 hour driving journey northeast. Since it was made with friends and coworkers, the time flew by. This particular group was a very easy going crowd, so our stops weren't long, but neither were they rushed. It helps to travel with low maintenance companions. We met once a month during the school year to read and discuss and learn about St. Andre Bessette and his life and miracles in Montreal. 

The oratory itself is stunning, the largest church in Canada. 

The school door where St. Andre was the doorman

View of the oratory from the gardens where there are life size stations of the cross

The original small oratory built by St. Andre and friends. He lived in the loft.

view of the oratory from the side

Sculpture of Angels Unaware

Candles for St. Joseph

St Andre's tomb

In contrast, the shrine to St. Kateri is small and humble. 

 

The weekend prior to that our fourth son/fifth kid graduated from college. We hosted a big party at our house, and I helped plan a big party at a reception place with a couple other moms. It was a bit bigger and more elaborate than I initially planned, but everyone had a fabulous time. The graduation was lovely. The valedictorian gave a very moving speech, and Timothy Shriver, the Laetare medal winner, had everyone in tears with his story of a Special Olympics athlete at the world games in Ireland. The commencement address was given by Sr. Raffaella Petrini, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist who is the president of the Pontifical Commission and Governorate of Vatican City State. She is the highest ranking woman at the Vatican, and one of the highest Vatican officials - basically the governor of the Vatican state. The baccalaureate was also moving - everyone loves the singing of the Alma Mater. And the Arts and Letters grad ceremony included some thoughtful remarks from the dean and a sighting of a Supreme Court Justice. It was a celebratory weekend. 

 

 

The weekend before that I took my parents to North Carolina and Smoky Mountain National Park to see our daughter run and to spend some time in the mountains (hills for people who are used to Sierras and Rockies).  This trip was a bit spur of the moment, but planned after our spring break trip didn't pan out.  My dad has Parkinson's and is moving slower these days, but this area has a lot of accessible trails that are paved or are well-groomed. For instance, we visited a few waterfalls. The most stunning was a 120 ft fall on Cherokee land. It has a stair climb that has a hand rail and benches just below the falls, so people can admire their beauty. This is not my favorite kind of hike, as I am more drawn to quieter, more remote hikes, but we were there on a weekday before the summer crowds, and its beauty was well worth the climb.  I also had thought an AirBnB would be more scenic, but hotels are easier and more predictable for my dad, so we stayed at a Best Western that was right on a river.  Our rooms had balconies over the water, and the free coffee and breakfast was a perk. It worked out well for visiting the cute little town of Sylva, NC, and the track meet at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.  After our drive through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on the north side of the Smoky Mtn NP, I highly recommend the south side! It was grown exponentially since my trips as a kid. 

view from Clingman's Dome, the highest point in SMNP

 

 

 

 

A little black bear farewelled us on our exit from the park

In between those trips I took the train up to Chicago for the American Literature Association Conference. I love riding the train, which gave me an extra two hours to work on my paper on Wendell Berry's representation of economic forces in Marce Catlett, The Force of a Story, his newest, and perhaps last, novel.  I should not have needed the extra two hours. If I had planned better, my paper would have been done weeks ago, and I'd have enjoyed the train ride even more, but maybe I enjoyed it just as much or more because I was plugged into the wifi typing away.  I didn't have to drive or find parking or pay attention to traffic. The train corridor is moderately scenic - I saw a few deer, was lulled by the sway and rumble of the cars, listened to other people talking and peeked at what other people were reading. I loved not having to drive home tired and exhausted from a long day of brain work. And I love these lit conferences, although I didn't stay at this one long enough to talk much with other attendees. I missed the evening dinner and social because I needed to get home and pack and leave the next day for the trip to Montreal. 

My classes at the college wrapped up well. I think my students improved in their speaking skills and their writing a little, and the rapport between students was good in class, which meant better discussions and more performative speaking.  A highlight was a guest speaker, Jimmy Dunne, who talked about the importance of business and communication, but mostly answered questions and shared life lessons.

My Laudato Si class at the middle school also wrapped up well. I have ideas to make it better, but I am going to step away next fall to teach at class at the high school - Redemption in Literature, which I'm inheriting from another teacher who taught it as a film class.  I'll miss my middle schoolers, and I love the topic of my Laudato Si class, but I also love the idea of looking for redemption in literature/film. I have four chicks in my garage from the class - we hatched chicks again at the end of the year, and while I'm not sure my middle schoolers even remember what Laudato Si means, they will remember the wonder and joy of hatching chicks. I hope they'll also remember our field trips - one to see maple syrup, and one to the ecosystem lab at a county park run by ND where they got to observe the nesting bald eagles and find some amphibians and snakes in the semi-controlled wetland observation area.  I thought it was a cool field trip, if I do say so myself.

So that was May - a full, beautiful month. I also celebrated my birthday while we were in Montreal.  I am grateful for the spring blooms and the opportunities to gather and celebrate.  At times we lead a charmed life. Although the planning and going and returning filled the days, the month didn't feel as chaotic or overwhelming as it has some years.  Instead, while it was full, it felt like one long celebration of life.  I am grateful. 

Peony Season!

To travel or not to travel

I've spent a lot of time lately debating some opportunities to travel. I have the privilege of having the option to go places and do things - a privilege of both finances and time, which are gifts we didn't possess earlier in our marriage.  Those resources are gifts I hope I don't take for granted, knowing how difficult or impossible it is for most people to get away on a vacation of any sort. 

This summer I have three opportunities to tag along with my husband on work trips. Right now I am with him on the first of these, which is a lakeside town just an hour from our house. With our college kids home for the summer, we can leave the youngest and the dog with very little fuss for a two night retreat of sorts. We're calling this our anniversary trip. 

The second trip is for a conference taking place in Alabama. We have good friends from our time in Guam in that area, and some other friends are coming to the conference, which includes programming for spouses including a hike one day and a history of the Civil Rights movement lesson/tour in Montgomery. I debated this one because it is a week long, but I decided to accompany my husband for the first half of the conference to meet up with our dear friends and learn some history, as well.

The third trip, I am debating. This trip is to Ireland for an anniversary celebration of the Notre Dame program at Kylemore Abbey.  Just typing that out makes me question why am I debating! Well, it happens to fall on the same weekend as a small family reunion my cousin has planned.  The reunion is just a Friday dinner and a Saturday picnic with the five cousins on my mom's side of the family and my three siblings and our families - about 45 people altogether. I invited but did not pressure my Boston and California children to attend because we are all convening in California for the Fourth of July/daughter's birthday celebration as our family summer vacation. They also have their own trips for weddings and family and work planned for the summer, so they are not coming, although our local kids likely will attend.  

This side of the family last convened two and a half years ago for the funerals of my aunt and uncle, who passed away within 24 hours of each other. There was a memorial service in Indiana and one in Texas, and our family attended both. The cousin who is organizing the reunion is the daughter of this aunt and uncle. This uncle, my mom's brother, was the reasons our families gathered as often as they did when we were growing up because they visited twice each year from Texas. This cousin is my sister's age, and we see each other regularly, if not often. The children of my mom's other brother I don't see as often. We all get along and have lots of shared memories of Christmas celebrations and summer barbecues back before all of us married and had our own families, but there is an age gap with the other set of cousins - I was their babysitter when they were little. Once we all started having kids and we moved away, we didn't gather at Christmas any more, and we didn't have enough in common to keep us bonded. We keep in touch by Christmas cards and social media updates, but the next time we all convene will probably be either a funeral or a wedding, although we did not invite all of these cousins to our sons' weddings, which were small.  

Part of me thinks, "Go to Ireland." It's a special celebration with performances and art and music in a beautiful location. It's our 30th anniversary year, and it's summer, and our accommodations are provided.  Our college kids are home to watch the 12 year old and dog, which may not happen again next year.

Another part of me thinks, "Go to the reunion." I committed to that six months ago, and it would mean a lot to my cousin who is organizing it. In a way it is a tribute to my aunt and uncle, who supported me when I was in grad school with two little toddlers.  My husband will have other reasons to visit this campus abroad and doesn't have an urgent reason to go to this event, other than to mark the anniversary. We've been to Ireland once, we have only limited time with our college students home for the summer, we are taking other trips, and we have some more home renovations taking place (new windows and green roof on the sun room). I'm teaching a new class in the fall and need to prep. The reunion is also an opportunity to see my other aunt and uncle, whom I love and don't see often.  

But who knows what the future will bring? The next time my husband needs to go to Ireland it may be much more difficult to make arrangements between child care, time off work, and potentially parent care.  Although the next time he needs to go could more convenient.  He also has other campuses abroad to tend to.

Who knows what the future will bring for my family? This reunion could be an opportunity to strengthen ties that have been weakened, even between my own siblings.  

I know I am way overthinking this decision, as I tend to do many decisions these days. I can't commit to chairs for the basement or furniture for the sun room, for goodness sakes. Sometimes I think I might have developed executive processing disorder, or maybe it is decision fatigue. Maybe I need a better decision tree/rubric that provides a set of questions related to values and priorities that I could use to make these kinds of decisions.

For example, what values are at play in this decision?  The reunion satisfies the value I place on time with family and strengthening relationships. 

Going to Ireland satisfies the value I place on time with my husband sharing experiences that strengthen our relationship. I also value educational experiences including travel, supporting the arts, and experiencing other cultures.  This would be a budget trip to Ireland because we would just have to buy my ticket and some meals. 

However, I also see some value in simplifying the rest of our summer, which is off to a busy start. My environmental side and my frugal side see some value to staying local, as does the side of me which values the time to complete projects, including those home projects and research and study and writing that are disrupted by planning, packing, and unpacking for trips. 

Is this trip to Ireland a once in a lifetime opportunity? No. Is the family reunion? No. Could they both be? Yes. We could all die tomorrow.  And now I've just spent another hour of my finite life internally debating this decision, time which needs to be spent on other things, and I'm not sure writing about this has made my mind any clearer, as I was hoping. Any thoughts? 

An image of Kylemore Abbey from Wikipedia

Blooming

 Although a frost or a freeze is called for this weekend, spring is in full bloom in this part of the country. Last weekend, I channeled my latent DIY spirit and made some cedar raised beds to put on the side of the house for a vegetable/cut flower garden. My husband cut the boards from cedar fence rails, and I got our 12 year old to help me screw them into place. (I'm hoping to keep her involved in the garden project.) Then we stapled some weed barrier to the bottom - a very simple structure, but it always feels good to make something yourself. The biggest expense is the cost of the dirt, because the weed barrier was from Goodwill and the cedar planks were only $4 apiece. I did fill about half of the bottom with cuttings from our decorative grasses and some other yard waste, but I wish I had kept a bag of leaves from the fall for compost. Something to plan for next year!

 The challenge is going to be sunlight. I'm pretty sure plants will struggle in this location because it is in full shade for most of the day, but there aren't too many other places a vegetable garden can go in our yard. We have various islands of shrubbery in the front and just a small patch of grass in the back. It has been interesting to see what is coming up. More daffodils that I anticipated and a few tulips that I didn't plant in addition to some that I had planted have bloomed. The tulips I planted were the ones dug up by the university after they were finished blooming on campus. These leftover bulbs are given away to faculty and staff. About half of them bloomed, while some of the others sent up leaves but no bud, and a few of the buds were gnawed by the rabbits before they bloomed. At any rate, each bloom was a source of delight. 

Since we didn't see the house in the spring last year, the blooming season has been more exciting than normal. First we had some oriental spice viburnums burst into bloom. They aren't showy but they smell intoxicating. There is a twiggy redbud in the corner of the yard that I'm sure is a volunteer, but I don't plan to dig it up.  We have one sad forsythia bush - I bought another on the clearance rack last week to place near the remains of the one that did bloom a little. 

Then we were pleased to see a dwarf crabapple in the back - could be something else, but the flowers look like a crabapple. Despite having some sort of black fungus, the ornamental plum put out a full show, but a storm knocked these flowers down shortly after they bloomed. The neighbor's magnolia and big old crabapple weathered the storm much better, and they are close enough to our patio that we can enjoy their perfume.  

Now the dogwoods are blooming, and the hydrangeas are leafing out. The peonies have buds - I hope they hold off from blooming for 2 weeks so they are showy for graduation weekend. There is another shrub with buds -  maybe a weigelia? - and one that looks like a lilac cultivar.  A new lilac is on my wishlist, as is a bleeding heart.  The lily of the valley are flourishing, making the backyard smells like a parfumerie. I discovered a few old fashioned forget-me-nots, which I didn't photograph, but was thrilled to see. The combination of those three shade loving spring beauties always reminds me of the courtyard garden in the little stone house where I lived for my first seven years.  How persistent are our aesthetic inclinations toward our first memories of loveliness!

I'm hoping Sunday it will warm up enough to plant some of the garden boxes. I think there are some old storm windows and doors in the attic that I could place on top to make a sort of cold frame, but a friend told me Mother's Day was planting day around here, when danger of frost declines dramatically. I won't ever forget, though, how we had snow on my birthday, May 24th, when we lived north of Chicago.  That was years ago, but with wild weather patterns lately, anything feels possible.  

And I'm hopeful anything might possibly grow in my shady garden boxes! We'll shall see.

The koi and the water plants survived the winter. Some amorous toads visited for a few days, and now we have hundreds of tadpoles as well. 

An iris has bloomed, somewhat dwarfish, to keep St. Fiacre company. Despite losing his head a few years ago, this little statue has accompanied us on several moves.

Fancy tulips planted by the previous owners.

Some late narcissus under the dogwood. The hostas are in full leaf now, too. I was hopeful our dogwood would be pink, but the white is pretty.

My rabbit chaser

Some Solomon's seal

The white tulips from campus. They grow tall and sturdy, while the fancy pinks have drooping stems - maybe from the weight of the multiflora petals?