Dec 5, 2023·edited Dec 5, 2023Liked by Gracy Olmstead
I really love the idea of an Ebenezer, though I don’t think I’ve intentionally kept one, besides journals (but like you said, that’s maybe not a true Ebenezer which is more tangible, more of a keepsake).
An unintentional one (which was my dad’s idea for our whole family to get) might be my tattoo of my late mother’s initials. It’s not quite a guiding light into a better future as perhaps the tattoo in O’Connor’s “Parker’s Back” haha. But it’s a small token that reminds me of the great woman that bore me and her humble and joyous faith in Christ, even in the face of her own death. In that way it is certainly encouraging and transformative.
Though, to be honest, I don’t much like tattoos, which is why this one is in white ink haha. I might swallow my pride and get it renewed in black ink next year on the 10th anniversary.
This is not nearly as thoughtful as your list! but I still keep a piece of paper torn from the planner I carried in high school with a list of the things I wanted to prioritize if I ever had a house of my own. I had not thought about it in years when I came across it while looking for something else, but every item on the list appears in some form in the home I live in now. I now save it intentionally because it reminds me that despite the many things that have turned out differently than I had expected, and despite how different I am in some ways than I was when I made that list, there's a core to me that has stayed the same, and there are good dreams that have been fulfilled.
I'm a little late commenting...I had this post open on my computer (always too many open windows!) planning to read it, but it got lost in the holiday shuffle. I like the letter from your younger self that you can re-read occasionally as a reminder of where you were and where you wanted to go. I think that can be a kind of Ebenezer, a stone of remembrance anchoring you to what is most important.
Years ago I had a blog and wrote about Ebenezers, too. A friend read it and sent me a lovely picture of an Ebenezer he had created, a cross surrounded by stones with dates on them, commemorating times God spared his life and his family's lives. He had escaped communism in Romania after being imprisoned for his faith for three years, one year underground after he tried to escape the first time. They finally ended up in the States and their two sons went to the Air Force Academy and West Point. They are very thankful to be "uprooted" from their old life of oppression, but they also miss some things from their life in eastern Europe and have family there still. My friend told me that as one of 14 children, he helped his family grow flax so they could make their own linen for bedding and clothing. Talk about subsistence farming! He also told me his favorite book was _Les Miserables_ which he read in French in high school while living in poverty and oppression.
I just finished your book, _Uprooted_ and it was so good, but I especially enjoyed it because Emmett is where my parents and grandparents are from. My grandparents are buried in the same cemetery as your grandparents, and I'm familiar with the places you mention in your book as I spent every summer of my childhood visiting our family there. My dad worked for the Messenger-Index and graduated from U of I in Moscow, and later was a Washington correspondent for the Portland Oregonian, living in D.C. for 40 years. He lives near me in California now because he has Alzheimers, but while he still was able to remember and write, he wrote his memoirs, and there are stories of Emmett in his book about his life. That book is an Ebenezer to me of God's hand on my life through the stories of generations of ancestors, whose lives and decisions brought me to where God has planted me now.
How fascinating Gracy, to learn the meaning of the word. Thank you. I’ll be reflecting on my own stones of remembrance in that special, dark, quiet week between Christmas and new year.
I have three Ebenezers fronting my desk in order to review them daily. They are my reminders of who I am and want to be.
1. The first is a list of 10 agrarian values as complied by Wendell Berry. I fancy that my true self is a closet agrarian, and I want and need to work at revealing this truth. The list of values without a single word of religion or spirituality rings home for this aspiring agnostic man of nature.
2. An October 29, 2023, musing of mine wherein I pruned a list of priorities I first documented on 4/18/20. There were 24 of them; 24 priorities. That many precludes living a minimalist life. I now have 5, backed by 6 “yearnings” that if behaviorally achieved would deliver those priorities. I read it every day.
3. The third is a quote from James Rebanks, a small holdings farmer in the UK who shares his life with us through his writing. Let me share him with you.
“I want to create a farm full of shelter, and patchiness, and shade, with leaf matter everywhere returned to the soil. I want to make our farm even better for wintering birds to come to for berries and fruit. Our farm solves nothing on its own; it is just the little place where we make our start. But all of us together can transform our landscapes one little act at a time.”
I really love the idea of an Ebenezer, though I don’t think I’ve intentionally kept one, besides journals (but like you said, that’s maybe not a true Ebenezer which is more tangible, more of a keepsake).
An unintentional one (which was my dad’s idea for our whole family to get) might be my tattoo of my late mother’s initials. It’s not quite a guiding light into a better future as perhaps the tattoo in O’Connor’s “Parker’s Back” haha. But it’s a small token that reminds me of the great woman that bore me and her humble and joyous faith in Christ, even in the face of her own death. In that way it is certainly encouraging and transformative.
Though, to be honest, I don’t much like tattoos, which is why this one is in white ink haha. I might swallow my pride and get it renewed in black ink next year on the 10th anniversary.
This is not nearly as thoughtful as your list! but I still keep a piece of paper torn from the planner I carried in high school with a list of the things I wanted to prioritize if I ever had a house of my own. I had not thought about it in years when I came across it while looking for something else, but every item on the list appears in some form in the home I live in now. I now save it intentionally because it reminds me that despite the many things that have turned out differently than I had expected, and despite how different I am in some ways than I was when I made that list, there's a core to me that has stayed the same, and there are good dreams that have been fulfilled.
I love the idea but this list seems to be more of a to do list or a list of goals and not a stone of remembrance to me.
I'm a little late commenting...I had this post open on my computer (always too many open windows!) planning to read it, but it got lost in the holiday shuffle. I like the letter from your younger self that you can re-read occasionally as a reminder of where you were and where you wanted to go. I think that can be a kind of Ebenezer, a stone of remembrance anchoring you to what is most important.
Years ago I had a blog and wrote about Ebenezers, too. A friend read it and sent me a lovely picture of an Ebenezer he had created, a cross surrounded by stones with dates on them, commemorating times God spared his life and his family's lives. He had escaped communism in Romania after being imprisoned for his faith for three years, one year underground after he tried to escape the first time. They finally ended up in the States and their two sons went to the Air Force Academy and West Point. They are very thankful to be "uprooted" from their old life of oppression, but they also miss some things from their life in eastern Europe and have family there still. My friend told me that as one of 14 children, he helped his family grow flax so they could make their own linen for bedding and clothing. Talk about subsistence farming! He also told me his favorite book was _Les Miserables_ which he read in French in high school while living in poverty and oppression.
I just finished your book, _Uprooted_ and it was so good, but I especially enjoyed it because Emmett is where my parents and grandparents are from. My grandparents are buried in the same cemetery as your grandparents, and I'm familiar with the places you mention in your book as I spent every summer of my childhood visiting our family there. My dad worked for the Messenger-Index and graduated from U of I in Moscow, and later was a Washington correspondent for the Portland Oregonian, living in D.C. for 40 years. He lives near me in California now because he has Alzheimers, but while he still was able to remember and write, he wrote his memoirs, and there are stories of Emmett in his book about his life. That book is an Ebenezer to me of God's hand on my life through the stories of generations of ancestors, whose lives and decisions brought me to where God has planted me now.
Happy New Year!
I love this list. Especially the part about writing what you want to write. Glad you wrote this 🩵
How fascinating Gracy, to learn the meaning of the word. Thank you. I’ll be reflecting on my own stones of remembrance in that special, dark, quiet week between Christmas and new year.
I have three Ebenezers fronting my desk in order to review them daily. They are my reminders of who I am and want to be.
1. The first is a list of 10 agrarian values as complied by Wendell Berry. I fancy that my true self is a closet agrarian, and I want and need to work at revealing this truth. The list of values without a single word of religion or spirituality rings home for this aspiring agnostic man of nature.
2. An October 29, 2023, musing of mine wherein I pruned a list of priorities I first documented on 4/18/20. There were 24 of them; 24 priorities. That many precludes living a minimalist life. I now have 5, backed by 6 “yearnings” that if behaviorally achieved would deliver those priorities. I read it every day.
3. The third is a quote from James Rebanks, a small holdings farmer in the UK who shares his life with us through his writing. Let me share him with you.
“I want to create a farm full of shelter, and patchiness, and shade, with leaf matter everywhere returned to the soil. I want to make our farm even better for wintering birds to come to for berries and fruit. Our farm solves nothing on its own; it is just the little place where we make our start. But all of us together can transform our landscapes one little act at a time.”