Photo - Heart Connection ~ March

The thing I love best about the Photo - Heart Connection process is that you really have no idea what is doing to be "the" photo until you get to the end of the month and reflect back. I thought for sure mine this month would be from our cruise, one of the beautiful photos I shot inside one of the churches on Jamaica. Instead it is this photo, that created an epiphany moment and a story.

Ugly Clothes

Ugly clothes. We all have ugly clothes, only we call them comfy clothes.  You know what they are, the baggy sweatpants and the two sizes too large, concert t-shirt in death pallor gray from 1995, the saggy butt jeans that you reserve for that one week a month, but are soon wearing every week of the month, because they are so comfortable. We wear these ugly clothes at home because nobody is going to see us and we want to be comfortable while cleaning the house or doing laundry. But somewhere along the way the line gets crossed. You need to run to the grocery store quick a minute for eggs for the chocolate chip cookie batter that you have already started. You are in your comfy clothes but you figure "I'll be quick, no one will see me" and nobody that you know does, this time. You make it back home unscathed, it wasn't so bad. The next thing you know you are getting all your groceries in your comfy clothes and the downward spiral begins.

I have a question for you though. If you were to stand in front of a three way mirror in the dressing room of your favorite clothing store in your comfy clothes how would you feel? My guess is that you wouldn't feel very pretty, or happy, or creative. What are those ugly/comfy clothes doing for you then?

These are the hard questions I started asking myself. This has been a month long light bulb moment starting with some dress shopping at our local Anthropologie store and calumniating with the train car photo above. 

I stood in front of the 3-way mirror in the dressing room of the Anthropologie store in a teal floral, endlessly flattering, perfectly lady like, always ready for a party, dress. I felt beautiful. I twirled and paraded back and forth in front of that mirror like I had never worn a pretty party dress before. Maybe I hadn't, at least not one that made me feel like this. 

My husband and I were getting ready to leave for a week long cruise and I really wanted a new dress to wear for one of the formal nights on the ship. I had found the one. As luck would have it, I found another as well, one that also made me feel pretty, and happened to be in the clearance room, that helped to justify the first one. Isn't it funny how we always have to justify everything to ourselves. 

I had found a couple of cute skirts the weekend before for some of the other nights. As I started to pack I was excited to be wearing these new things. I put a lot of thought into my wardrobe for the trip. There were no ugly/comfy clothes in the suitcase. 

The trip was great, each day going to my suitcase or the closet to decide what adorable ensemble I was going to wear. 

Then we came home, all the cute clothes went in the laundry and out came the ugly clothes again. As that first week home went on I began to have a yearning for those cute new clothes. I liked how I felt in them, I liked how I looked in them. I didn't like how I felt in the ugly clothes. 

Sunday morning, getting ready for church, I took the time to put on a cute outfit. Purple sweater dress, black leggings and tall black boots. Final touch, my long red and black plaid dress coat, very cute with the boots. 

Driving to church by myself, my husband had to be there early for praise band practice, I saw this boxcar and knew I had to stop and use my iPhone to get a photo of it. I could picture the finished result in my head.

Standing in a muddy field in my red and black plaid coat and my long black boots was when the epiphany happened. I felt like a photographer, I felt creative, I didn't care that people were looking at me as they drove by on their way to church. I felt pretty. I wish somebody could have taken a photograph of me in that moment to document the transformation.

Jamaican Adventure - The Churches

Glen and I did two Shore Excursions while we were on our cruise. This one was my favorite, and that is not because I thought it was better run than the first. They both were filled with tourist trinkets being pushed upon us, and that is one of the reasons why I dislike shore excursions, but I am realistic and sometimes they are the best way to see a certain area.

This excursion was called - A Heartbeat of Jamaica - Discover Falmouth
Tour duration: 3-1/2 hours
Tour historic Falmouth, including St. Peter's Anglican Church and William Knibb Baptist Church. Visit a rural school, interact with the children and proceed to an 18th century estate by the Martha Brea River. You have the opportunity to taste fruit juice, jerk chicken, fresh fruits, sweet bread with cheese, sugar cane and Jamaica's famous rum.

After being loaded unto a bus and then waiting while one lost party for the tour was found, we set off for our adventure.

Let me say the shops by the port for the ship are all bright and shiny, but you drive two blocks away from that port and the world changes. Things are not bright and shiny anymore, unless you count the corrugated tin that is used for roofs.

First stop William Knibb Baptist Church, herded off the bus with three other bus loads of tourists, my patience was starting to wear a little thin. I was beginning to have a bad attitude about this whole trip, and then I stepped into the church…

William Knibb Baptist Church

The first chapel built in 1831 and was destroyed in 1832. The church replaced the chapel in 1836 was demolished by a hurricane in August 1944, after which the present structure was built, incorporating material from the 19th century church.

The English Baptist minister William Knibb (1803-1845) arrived as a missionary in Jamaica on November 5, 1824 with his new wife, Mary Watkins. Originally sailing to replace his brother as a missionary and schoolmaster, Knibb worked at the Baptist mission school in Kingston before moving to Falmouth. In March of 1830, Knibb arrived in Falmouth with his wife and two children to assume the responsibilities of minister at the Baptist church.

There was a talk being presented while we were sitting in the pews.

Photo credit: Glen Huizenga

Photo Credit: Glen Huizenga

Glen was much better at paying attention to that than I was, I was too busy trying to quietly shoot the glorious windows.

Best known as an advocate for abolition, Knibb often defended black slaves' rights. In January of 1832, Knibb used the Falmouth Baptist chapel as a barracks for the St. Ann's regiment during the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt. The Revolt, led by a slave named Samuel Sharpe, encouraged as many as 60,000 of Jamaica's 300,000 enslaved people to rebel. Magistrates and officers of the militia suppressed the events. As the militia prepared to leave Falmouth on February 7, Mr. John W. Gaynor, a magistrate and ensign, Adjutant Samuel Tucker and the Colonial Church Union encourage their men to demolish the chapel, making it one among many across the island destroyed after aiding the insurrection of the  slaves.

I knew we had one more church to visit so my attitude had improved greatly after being at this first one. I prayed the second one would be just as good.

St. Peter's Anglican Church

The original church was completed in 1796. The contract to build an Anglican church was awarded to William Danny in 1791 for of 9,000 pounds. Danny's requirements in the contract were to build a church with wall three feet thick and twenty feet high, with accommodations for 300 people, and using the best white limestone available. Danny was to complete the church in 18 months. 

As all construction projects go, this one didn't quite stick to that timeline, but once you see all the glorious detail inside you can see why it took longer than 18 months.

In 1845 the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and Decalogue were added to the walls on imported wooden panels above the alter.

I couldn't find any information on the stained glass windows.

The pews are original from 1796.

Stairs to the balcony, where my darling husband was shooting.

Work is being done on the Clock Tower.

The original contract and church specifications did not include plans for a clock tower and on June 29, 1796, the church wardens were charged with seeking someone to "erect a sufficient Belfry for suspending the Town Bell and Clock and pay the expenses thereof." Within the year, a sixty-foot tower was constructed and three bells along with an eight-day, three-dialed clock were installed. Two years later, in 1798, Messrs. Burmingham and Robertson were paid 750 pounds to build a dome or cupola atop the belfry to protect the clock tower and clock devices from the rain.

That's a wrap for the churches. I could have easily stayed all morning at either one of them, so many beautiful details.

I will do the school and the 18th Century Estate in a separate post.

Joining Helen for Weekend Walks