NOAC 2017

Here it is another Fall season and every other year we have been going to Lake Junaluska for the Church of the Brethren National Older Adults Conference. It is for adults 50 years and older and is designed to challenge us to be active for good, to reflect the values seen in the life of Jesus to the generations that follow.  Lake Junaluska Conference Center in the mountains of North Carolina is a  Methodist enclave that can handle large meetings. We had roughly 850 there this time.

It's a pleasant place especially for older adults who have problems with mobility. The scenery is gorgeous, the meals are nourishing and tasty, and the topics are timely. 

Inspiration 2017, National Older Adult Conference - Church of the Brethren...

Boat ride that informs of the history of Lake Junaluska

Terrace Hotel where we stayed

Squadron of geese one afternoon as the sun was low...

Lake Junaluska from our room...

One of the hundreds of roses on the Rose Walk beside the lake...

Lake Junaluska with fog wisps at breakfast....

Saraswati

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Saraswati

I posted this a number of years ago and then found a photographer friend's comment 

about her recently. Tried to find it in my list of blogs but it didn't show, so Googled it...

and there it was. So, I copied and pasted it for anyone interested. 

Retook the picture as that had been deleted also. 

I found her in an Indian shop at Estes Park a number of years ago on the way home from a Woodstock Old Students Association conference. Hand carved wood statues have always attracted me, and she was sort of in a back corner when I spotted her.

Several things drew my attention. Looking closely at the work showed some skill had gone into her creation. There were exquisitely carved details. She was a musician playing an Indian instrument resembling a guitar. She stood about 8 inches tall and would work well with the few others in my collection. Her name was Saraswati, according to the paper that came with her,and was the Hindu goddess of music, science, and knowledge to name a few of her attributes. In the Hindu mythology she  was present and necessary at the Creation.

Wikipedia has a large and interesting article about her. As an American musician who lived his childhood in India reading about Saraswati was fascinating. In articles about the mind and intelligence the inference is often that musical study and performance enhance mental abilities.In Genesis a musician is named early on with others who had important skills. Recently a newspaper article related the finding of a bone flute that appeared to be 30,000 years old.So music has apparently been associated with our humanity prominently for quite some time.

During this season of merriment and music she reminds me of the mystical emergence of music in the human mind and its importance for our health and happiness.

January 2017 First Snow

a neighboring home across from ours

some snow laden pine branches

about 6 " on the mailbox

Our home in the afternoon light Saturday.....

After the visit to the Lewis Ginter Gardens we had routine Thursday ....and then came the big snow all day Saturday the 7th of January followed by a deep freeze cold...The snow and cold cancelled church services and provided extra time to take down the Christmas tree and pack most of the decorations away until next year.
Sunday afternoon Cathy, Jeff and Devin came over and finished the digging out process and we had time for a nice long visit. We have another night of brutal cold and then Tuesday it is supposed to thaw.

2017 "We see through a glass..."

Lib and I began 2017 quietly in our own home by watching  all the festivities going on in Times Square on TV.  2016  will be a year many will not remember fondly, yet it was kind to us!! 

We look forward to events in 2017 that we may participate in. Our oldest grandson, Dan White graduates from Temple University to what should be a bright future in business.  We may attend Lib’s class reunion in Dayton, Virginia. In the Fall we look forward to a week at Lake Junaluska where CoB “golden agers” go for inspiration and rejuvenation. 

On this past 4th of January we had a very pleasant visit with Judy Schiller Landry who  briefly taught me violin at Woodstock School. After almost 50 years we have reconnected  as musicians and friends. Her daughter Adena brought her and we learned more of her family and life experiences also. Both Adena AND her daughter have visited India recently. Two more generations get to share  some of Judy's experience

After their departure Lib and I went to Lewis Ginter Gardens which are lavishly lit up during the Christmas Season. We are members there and enjoythe beautiful settings and flowers/plants. Turns out Judy had visited there the night before.

balloon like lights that change color

avenue of green light s

Pool of blue fountains

conservatory

The weather was mild albeit a little chilly, but Lib and i had a fine time enjoying the tastefully lit environs.

60th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

                         “…..and they lived happily ever after”

60 years ago I married my sweetheart on December 29, 1956 in the Dayton

Church of the Brethren. We have been celebrating that event this past week a little early and hope that, the Lord willing, we will see that day shortly after Christmas.

Here is the briefest synopsis to put it in perspective. After graduating from high school in 1955 I was accepted by Shenandoah Conservatory at Dayton, Virginia to continue violin and musical studies for a career in music education. I found employment as a baker at the Thomas House and Home 

business a few blocks down from the conservatory. Lib also had work in the bakery after school and then would walk home. Both of us sang in the church choir. Her older sister Evelyn was married to a cousin of mine, a fact not realized by me at the time. 

During the Fall of my Freshman year I asked her if I might walk her home after choir during one of our work times at the bakery. She said her brother in law, Gene Erbaugh usually drove her home. On learning  that I had asked for the walk home  her Mother   told her to return to the bakery and “ tell Bill Kinzie he may walk you home!  Here is some money to buy donuts”. After choir we walked and talked on our way   to her home. And that is how it all began.

About a year later we were engaged and I bought her an engagement ring. Slowly plans were made to plan a marriage to occur the last of December. 

There were adult friends and advisors who counselled against it and one of my single Conservatory professors was aghast when he realized that I was wearing a wedding ring upon returning from Christmas break. 

So here we are 60 years later! What an interesting journey it has been. Yes, there were real challenges to be met. We were fortunate enough to find gainful employment to help get me through college. We also lived within our means and didn’t buy just because our older friends or family could. A few years later her brother and sister in law let us live in a part of the old homeplace while I earned my MA degree at what is now Madison University. Later we moved to Roanoke where I began my career as a Strings teacher in the city schools and we started our family. 

This past Sunday our granddaughter Rachel White drove us to Staunton, Virginia to the Mill Street Grill where we joined our daughter Cathy and her son Devin and older daughter Lisa White, her husband Mark and Rachel’s two brothers Dan and Sam White. There we enjoyed a celebratory family lunch. Jeff, Cathy’s husband was missing because of work obligations. 

Next we went to a Methodist Church a few blocks up the street to attend my youngest sister’s (Mary Inge) youngest daughter’s ( Taylor Inge) wedding. Then we celebrated a quick Christmas “open packages” in the fellowship hall as the White family would be driving back to Wilmington after the reception. 

Then we went to Dayton to pose in front of  Lib’s homeplace now owned by a Mennonite family and next to the Dayton Church of the Brethren to pose at the door we exited the evening we were officially man and wife. 

Finally Rachel drove us to Madison University where the young couple’s reception was and enjoyed more family and food as we celebrated their first few hours together as a married couple. Then Rachel drove us back to Midlothian and stayed the night before driving to North Carolina.

Each pair’s coupling  is a dice toss of the Universe. My father and mother married during the Great Depression and  seven years later went to India as church missionaries. My life was hugely different and I still reap the rewards of that couple’s early adventure.  Lib and I have seen marriages where they had it all crash and burn a few years later. Luck and perseverence surely are a part of the mix as is determination to make it work.

Bill & Lib 60th Anniversary

Cake close up

Cathy Miles, Lisa White, Lib Kinzie-Bill Kinzie, Mark White, Devin Miles, Rachel White, Dan White, Sam White, Jeff Miles Missing

Dan White, Devin Miles at present unwrap

Lib Kinzie (Grandmother) Rachel White  Granddaughter

It began here 60  years ago!

Lib and oldest daughter Lisa White in front of Lib's ancestral home in Dayton, Virginia.

A Visit to Our Past

Monday October 17 I decided to make a reconnoitering trip to the Skyline Drive which is about 80 miles from our Midlothian area home.  It was a bright sunny afternoon and we would arrive in time to catch a nice Autumnal light to enhance the colors.

Unfortunately, it's been dry and the foliage was green and brown with very few colorful trees readily available. If time permits we may try a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway... believe they may have had more rain in that direction which could contribute to more dramatic colors. Think there is probably only a window of two weeks and often when it is the most colorful,  duties prevent the trip up to the mountains.

Lib had often expressed the wish to visit Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren where we were pastor and young wife while I attended my last two years at Bridgewater College.  The church is in Crimora, Virginia and within about a half hour drive of Skyline Drive at the Waynesboro, Va. end.

We had visited briefly once in the past and couldn't recall much from that time. This time I took pictures of the church which appears newly painted, has a paved parking area, and an addition to the back of the building. We visited the cemetery adjacent to the church and found the tombstones of Howard and Gracie Crickenberger who were prominent and helpful in steering our experience there in positive and helpful ways.  We saw other family last names but were not able to connect with direct memories. On our way to Grottoes down highway #340 we drove past the house that was the church parsonage.  Lib was able to identify it with much more assurance than I as she could recall specific features which I had forgotten.  The second picture is of the welcoming front doors.
It appears to be a thriving congregation and recently celebrated a homecoming event from one of the posters out front. It's been 60+ years since we were there and are grateful for the experience. Happy memories.

Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren

Anne Lind: Miscellaneous Photos

Anne Lind: Miscellaneous Photos

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