Tag: diary
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Fashion Can Be A Quaker Passion
Because I’ve posted so many Sunday entries, today, I’m skipping ahead to the upcoming Wednesday in Mary Jane’s diary. For context, at the time of her writing, she and her sister Lizzie, my three-times great-grandmother, have been home in rural East Central Indiana for six weeks since returning from their first stint teaching freedmen in…
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Frederick Douglass, Mary Jane, and Me: Bringing Historic Figures to Life
A week ago, I saw Frederick Douglass: Well, not really. But I did attend a performance by Darius Wallace, an actor of notable skill. In character as Douglass, Wallace delivered a one-man show at the Historic Fall Creek Meetinghouse, east of Pendleton, Indiana. The outdoor venue perfectly framed the venue and the context: Douglass briefly…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Time Moves On, But Human Nature Stays the Same
From the 1866 diary that inspired my first novel: Sunday, May 20, 1866 Milton, Lizzie & I went to Elmgrove to meeting. Got there before the Sabbath school closed. I read the 46th Psalm at the close of school; several were at meeting, no preaching. After meeting we went to N Gause, took dinner, then…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Weather Delays
On Wednesdays, I try to share passages from the 1866 diary of my third great-aunt, Mary Jane Edwards, whose journal has inspired my first novel: “Tuesday, May 8, 1866 This morning we undertook washing and during the day we succeeded in gathering the clothes into the rinse. As it was rainy we did not put…
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My Go-To Stress-Busting Strategy
Simple knee pain that resulted in a week’s hospitalization, nights of pseudo-sleep curled into a hard, narrow futon, and protracted, increasingly urgent advocacy. A nagging fatigue that turned into a two-week-plus hospital stay, featuring an invasive test, major surgery, and endless observations. A subsequent heart-wrenching death in the family. And then the endless waiting… No…
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Where to Even Begin?
Hmm: A runaway mule team that nearly mows down two women? A quarrel between two sisters who claim to be pacifists? A public argument between a female Northerner and a male Confederate sympathizer? For several months, I debated about the best narrative hook for my novel based on the real family-heirloom diary of my ancestor,…
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Taking a Risk – Putting Faith into Action
How often do we see faith in action like this today? “Sunday, March 25, 1866 Another Sabbath has passed away…This afternoon [I] attended [the] Baptist meeting, but it proved to be mostly a business meeting. They are raising money to buy a lot and build a church as they will most likely be deprived of…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: How to Be Stuck: A Lesson from 1866
“Wednesday, March 21, 1866 Last night we had thunder and lightning, and a shower of rain which continued through the night. I did not go out visiting this morning [or] in the afternoon. Lizzie and I went up to town and purchased some dry goods. Good calico is 23 & 30 cents per yard, lower…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Words of wisdom in stressful times – from 1866!
Sunday, March 11, 1866 We looked for the Ohio teachers on the morning train but they did not come & no word from them. We received a letter from home; they are well as usual. Change is going on among our friends & acquaintances: some are married, some are consigned to the tomb, since our…
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Things Just Fell Into Place
It was nothing remarkable that I did. Nothing that I especially deserved. It just happened. That’s how my 3xs great aunt’s diary has become a novel.
