Washington D.C. - Day 3

So, I've finally got day three of my trip to Washington D.C. ready to post! The rest of the days should be out soon! 

On the third day of my trip, I went to Jamestown and Yorktown in Virginia. Jamestown was the site of the first English settlers in the New World who were chartered by the Virginia company to come look for gold and riches. Instead, they were met with hardships such as disease, malnutrition and fatigue. The site of Jamestown today has four main areas for visitors to browse: an indoor museum, a replication of the Native America village, replication of the English settlement, and the port where the ships landed. Jamestown was amazing to walk through, and it was very interactive and kid-friendly. You were able to walk through the building and touch the things they had set out. In the Native American village, I was able to grind corn, sit in a hand-carved wooden canoe and scrap the fur off of an animal hide with a shell. In the English settlement, I was able to try on some of the armor people might have worn back then (and it was heavy!) and stand in the high pulpit of the church. 

Yorktown was the location of the Battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary war where General George Washington defeated General Charles Cornwallis which started the end of the war. I didn't get to stay very long in Yorktown, but they had a museum that you could walk through and few videos you could watch in a theater. Their outside grounds were small, but they were interesting. There were a bunch of tents set up, a few buildings and a real garden that you could go see. I was also lucky enough to see a musket and cannon demonstration where kids from the crowd where able to load the cannon! They weren't able to actually fire it, but they could prepare it. 

Although I don't have any pictures of this, I also stopped in Williamsburg to eat lunch. We were going to attempt to stop at a tavern for lunch, but unfortunately we just missed them before they closed. Still, we walked around the town for a bit and saw all these old fashioned shops that had a certain charm to them. 

So that's about sums up day three! Here's some pictures of some of my adventures!

Jamestown

A view of a few of the wigwams of the Native Americans in Jamestown.

Another view of the Native American village.

It's hard to tell, but this is actually a hand-carved wooden canoe. It's hard to imagine actually being able to paddle in one of these!

A model of a Native American campfire.

The inside view of a wigwam. There were lots of handwoven baskets and animal furs.

We had to walk along a little path to get to the English portion of Jamestown. The main settlement was surrounded by a wooden fence like this one. 

An overview of the English settlement.

Another view of some of the settlement. I think that the houses are so quaint!

This is hard to see, but the little lump on the loft is a chicken. This was part of the schoolhouse and when I walked in there was a loud sound and a fluttering of feathers, and I was shocked to find some real live chickens in the schoolhouse! I can't imagine trying to learn with them wandering the place!

Another view of some of the structures.

This is the inside of the church. The pews had high, straight backs that looked uncomfortable, but the pew seating was actually really comfortable! On the right you can see the pulpit that I was later able to go stand on! It's quite the view!

This is one of the ships at the port. There were two ships there: a larger one and a smaller one. We were able to walk on and explore both ships. If I have anything to say about them, it's that they have some tight, narrow quarters!

The flag and mast on the larger ship.

Yorktown

One of the gardens in Yorktown.

A more green and live garden then the one above. 

A building in Yorktown with some white army tents in the background. 

A first view of Yorktown

This was the man who demonstrated the musket firing - uniform and all!

This is the inside of one of the little buildings in Yorktown.

Finally, here is a hat that hung on a nail inside the building above. Liberty or death? This statement was based on the quote by Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death!"

That concludes day three of my trip to Washington D.C. I'm hoping and trying really hard to get the rest of the days up soon!

~Emily Silverwing

What's Happening

I haven't posted in about a month due to reasons such as being busy and transitioning into this new school year, but I haven't forgotten about my blog! It's just been pushed to the wayside for a little bit, though I am going to try really hard to get back into a somewhat regular writing routine. 

So what have I been doing?

Well, the end of my summer was spent babysitting nearly every week day. The job was quite an experience for me, and it was also tiring. When I got home, I hardly wanted to do anything but sleep! It was a good experience for me though. 

I also was able to go camping over Labor Day weekend with my extended family. I spent my days making bracelets, taking picures, swimming, playing volleyball, talking with my family and friends and going to a winery. One of my favorite parts was sitting around the campfire, making eclaires and talking with my family under the stars. Thankfully, the weather was warm, we didn't get rained on and there weren't too many mosquitos! There were swarms of bees though around our picnic tables! My friend and I went around trapping the bees with plastic cups and writing "Angry Bee: do not touch" on the cups! Camping was a beautiful way to end the summer before starting school back up.

In the last two weeks, I've been caught up in school and homework. As you get older, it seems like kids are given more and more homework to fill their days. There has not been one day in which I have had no homework yet this year, and I already have had multiple tests and quizzes. Even this next week, I already have three quizzes and three tests lined up. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance schoolwork and times to relax to do things like read, write on my blog, draw, bake and watch TV. 

I've also been dancing. Last week, my dance classes began and this year, I am dancing four days a week. As usual, I am taking ballet and pointe, but I am also trying a new class - tap! This isn't my first time taking tap; I used to take tap when I was younger but had to drop the class when I switched studios. I'm now ready to get back into it though and am excited to be starting it up again! Hopefully, I can make a post about tap and how it is coming along for me in the coming weeks as I get more into the class. 

Other than that, my days have been filled with miscellaneous shenanigans that have kept me busy and away from writing. I have been thinking of things to write about and have some ideas that I hope will be written soon! I am also going to finish my vacation pictures from Washington DC. 

As for now, I am feeling relieved to let you, my readers, know what is goong on with me. I hope you'll get to see some more frequent posts about a variety of topics! You all are in my prayers!

~Emily Silverwing

Washington DC - Days 1 and 2

I'm finally able to start getting up some of my photos from my trip to Washington DC earlier this summer! Washington DC was an amazing week-long trip that I took with my family. There is so much about DC that I absolutely loved and some things I did not. I hope to share some of my adventures and discoveries with you through both photos and stories. Since the trip was a week long, I took so many pictures and saw so many things that I have to break up my posts by days. So today, I bring to you days one and two of my trip.

Day One - Fort McHenry

On the first day of my trip to D.C., I stopped at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Fort McHenry is the fort where Francis Scott Key penned the words of The Star Spangled Banner - then called The Defence of Fort M'Henry - during the War of 1812.

The flag that stands at Fort McHenry. During the day, the flag that flies is a replica of the flag that stood during the war: 15 stars and 15 stripes.

The Patapsco River near Fort McHenry.

One of the walls on the outside of the fort.

At 5 o'clock, the 15 stars, 15 stripes flag is taken down and replaced with the current American flag. What's really neat is that the people visiting the fort are allowed to help take down the flag and replace it! I was able to help in this process, and it was neat to be able to hold and fold the flag at this historical site.

Another view of the Patapsco River. Along the bank of the river, you can see a couple cannons and how they were placed during the war.

A view of Fort McHenry from the outside.

Day Two - The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Mount Vernon

On the second day, I went to mass in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. It was one of the largest and most beautiful churches I have ever been in. I went to mass in the lower crypt chapel, and then after mass, I wandered the church looking at the different shrines of Mary. It was so beautiful! Unfortunately, I was unable to get pictures that turned out inside the church, but I encourage you to look up pictures of the inside because it is breath-taking!

The outside of the Basilica.

A side view of the Basilica from the parking lot.

Front view of the Basilica.

 After mass, I went to Mount Vernon in Virginia - the home of George Washington. It was a VERY hot day, and there was lots of walking on this day, but it was still lots of fun. I was able to go on three tours: the Garden Tour, the House Tour and the National Treasure Tour. All the tours were very exciting, but my favorite was the National Treasure Tour. During this tour, we got to see the areas that the cast and crew filmed at at Mount Vernon and learn facts about the movie. As a special part of this tour, we actually got to go into a restricted area of Washington's house: the basement! We got to walk through the basement and see the cornerstone that was actually in the movie. It was amazing! During the Garden Tour, we got to walk around the estate and see the gardens and flowers. All the gardens were gorgeous and it is clear that gardens were a big part of the Washington's lives. The House Tour was also very neat! During this tour, I got to walk through the Washington's house and see the rooms. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed to be taken inside, but I was able to get the outside of the house!

George Washington's house.

One of the gardens inside the estate.

I'm not sure what type of flower this is, but I thought it was pretty! Lots of the flowers were in full bloom.

More flowers.

One of the vegetable gardens.

The well in the kitchen garden.

 One of the outer buildings around the estate. There were many of these.

A far out view of George Washington's house. The grass field that can be seen used to have a trail for the carriages to ride down until Washington decided to cover it with grass. This grass was cut by a few slaves with scythes.

A view of one of the walkways between the servant's quarters and Washington's house. The other walkway connects the kitchen to the house.

Washingon's riding chair. (Read more below.)

Washington's carriage. 

(Goes with picture below.)

Currently, there is excavation for the bodies of Washington's slaves. This is the site where they are digging up the bodies and attempting to name them.

Yet another garden area.

A statue of George Washington inside one of the museums.

This is one of my souvenirs from Mount Vernon. According to the information on the card, this is a real rose picked from the Mount Vernon gardens that was covered in six layers of glass to preserve the color. They had a variety of colors of roses, but I decided on this bright red rose! 

And that concludes the first two days of my trip! I really hope to be able to get the rest up in the next few weeks before school starts, but between finishing summer homework, camping, school supply shopping and just life in general I may not get a chance. Hopefully I will though!

~Emily Silverwing

The Butterfly Circus

Goodness, I haven't posted anything in a while! Things have gotten busy for me in the past few weeks, but I hope to be posting more in the coming weeks. I have some pictures and stories from a vacation I recently took with my family that I want to get up. Hopefully those will be coming soon!

One of the things that I had been doing the past few weeks was helping out at a summer youth group for middle school students. It's been a rewarding experience, and even though I am there to help, I still learn a lot from the lessons that we teach and the dicussions we begin. Two weeks ago, we showed a video to the kids called The Butterfly Circus. The Butterfly Circus is a short film that follows one man's through his journey from ridicule to greatness, from despair to hope. I'm posting the video below, and I highly recommend that you watch it before reading the rest of this post. If you don't have time to watch the twenty minute video now, I'll summarize below.

The film begins with the Butterfly Cirucs troupe stopping at another circus - a circus that bases its entertainment off of showcasing "freaks of nature" and fortune telling. Mr. Mendes - the ringmaster of the Butterfly Circus - walks into the sideshow and views the bearded lady, the tatooed man and then in the words of the guide "a man that some say even God himself turned His back on." This man named Will and played by Nick Vujicic had no arms nor legs. While the crowd began to murmur, laugh and throw tomatoes at Will, Mr. Mendes just looked on with sadness and wonder and then went to Will to say, "You are magnificient." After being spit on by Will, Mr. Mendes just apologizes and leaves which surprises Will. Intrigued by this man and his work, Will manages to sneak into the Butterfly Circus and becomes a part of their team, but not as a person to be ridiculed. Will watches how the Butterfly Circus performs and brings pure joy to people, not like the "joy" that the other circus brought to people. He is awed by their work and wishes that he could be like them. Then Mr. Mendes takes Will aside and tells him that the people in his circus have all come from a broken past and then says, "See the beauty that comes from ashes...you have an advantage. The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph." Later on, while the troupe is playing in a river, they leave Will alone on the other side, despite his calls for help to cross. When no one hears his cries, Will becomes determined to cross the river on a log despite having no legs or arms to help him. The next thing he knows, he has fallen into the river and in a panic, the troupe begins to search for him. To the surprise of everyone there, Will did not need any help; he could swim! Despite having no arms or legs, Will could do something they never thought possible. The troupe cheered at Will's newfound talent and eventually gave him an act in their circus. After the circus, instead of being laughed at, the cirucs fans crowded around him in wonder and awe. Will had achieved something more than he had ever thought possible. 

That's the basic summary of the video, but having rewatched the video multiple times, I've noticed many ideas that this short film is portraying. The Butterfly Circus isn't just about the victory of Will; it's a representation of our lives and what we can do with them with God's help. It shows us that what the world says about us and how we can do so much more than what the world expects. I want to take a closer look at some of the things that The Butterfly Circus represents.

First, I want to compare and contrast the two circuses. The first circus promoted a very different idea than the Butterfly Circus. The first circus used its position in society to ridule those whom they believed did not meet the world's standards. They took joy in other people's pain. They also used it to promote practices such as fortune telling that can be dangerous to one's soul. In other words, this circus tempted people to be the worst version of themselves by making the bad, detrimental things look appealing. In some ways, this circus represents the world. Sometimes the world makes things that can harm us look good. It can tell us lies that sounds like the truth.

On the other hand, we have the Butterfly Circus that is very much different from the first circus. When Will first talked with the Butterfly troupe, he wondered if he could join their sideshow, but Mr. Mendes had told him that there was no sideshow and that they did things differently. This scene always reminds me of Proverbs 14:4. "Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way." The Butterfly Circus is going their own way. They are not like the other circuses around. The joy that they create comes from their God-given talents. They come from true accomplishments, not breaking others down. They bring pure joy to people, a true happiness that lasts. They bring hope, joy, love and the will to do great things.  Doesn't this sound like something you want to be around? I would, and this is the genius of teh Butterfly Circus. The Butterfly Circus is almost a representation as what we should be in the world - our mission from Christ. And what better way to do that than by building people up and encouraging them to spread their wings and fly?

The name in "Butterfly Circus" in itself suggests the work that Mr. Mendes intends to accomplish in the lives of others. Think about the life cycle of a butterfly. A butterfly begins as a caterpillar - a lowly creature that seems insignificant. It can only crawl around; others look down on it. This is similar to the stage where Will was in the sideshow at the first circus. The next stage is the cacoon. In this stage, there's a transformation going on. Sometimes, being trapped in a cacoon is a bit uncomfortable; you feel a bit enclosed and trapped. Maybe you don't feel like you quite belong, like you're meant for soemthing more. This is the stage where Will had left the first circus and joined the Butterfly Circus but had no specific role in it; this is where he was searching for who he really was. The last stage to a butterfly is the breaking out of the cacoon, comes out as a butterfly and flies away. No longer is it a simple crawling creature, it is a magnificient being that can soar to higher heights than ever thought possible. This is where Will discovers he can swim; he could do something that no one ever though possible. He had overcome every obstacle that stood in his way to do amazing things.

The next two things I want to look at are the characters of Mr. Mendes and Will. Mr. Mendes was the leader of group of people who did not fit well into society; he welcomed anyone despite their circumstances and helped them do things that they never could have done without his guidance. He led his troupe around the land, bringing comfort to the people and some even thought he did miracles. He did not conform to the world and loved people for who they are. He was once spit on even. Does any of this sound familiar? Mr. Mendes almost seems like Jesus. Like Jesus, Mr. Mendes is a role model for how we are to live our lives: with love, patience, kindness and courage.

 On the other hand, we have Will. Will is looked down on by society for not being "normal" because of his lack of limbs. Will is one who believes the lies that the world tells him. He believes he is a freak because that is what he hears. Not until one soul like Mr. Mendes enters his life does he begin to believe that he is capable of doing great things. Once he begins to trust and believe, his will becomes more resolved and he does accomplish things that no one thought he could do. He came from a lowly background with little support to a man that was looked up to in wonder and amazement. When we begin to pray and rely on God, we too can accomplish the great plans that God has in store for us.

While different people will get different things out of this video, here's my take-away points from what I have seen:

• Nothing can stop you from being who you are meant to be. The world can't stop you, your friends can't stand you, your parents can't stop you. If God intends for you to do something, you can overcome the obstacles. 
• No one can define who you are. What Will was called while in the sideshow was not who he was. That was what the world thought, but sometimes, the world is wrong. You're the daughter or son of God! 
• Despite what the world tells us,we can conquer anything; we can do something in this world.
• Whatever stands in your way can be overcome, never let someone tell you what you can do.
• "See the beauty that comes from ashes." (Mr. Mendes) The Butterfly Circus troupe was not perfect; they had flaws like you and I, but the difference is that they went above those flaws and used their talents for good. You do not have to be perfect or have everything together to do something in the world.
• "The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph." (Mr. Mendes) We all have struggles. Some of us might struggle with looks, others may have family problems. Some may have a physical limitation, others might have an addiction. But despite whatever we are going through, we can overcome them with God's help and the help of those around us. When we triumph over our struggles, they will be more beautiful, more cause to triumph over because of all the dedication and strength we put in to overcoming them. 

The Butterfly Circus is definitely a film that can encourage and inspire. While you may have gotten different things out of the video than I did, I encourage you to take another look at where you are in your walk with Christ and to live out the things you have learned. Live them out and do not be ashamed of being different! God has great plans in store for you, and you can accomplish them!

~Emily Silverwing