Illinois Archives - Gayle Harper

Click!

November 21, 2013 by Gayle Harper 16 Comments

At precisely the perfect time, while up to my eyeballs in alligators during the Kickstarter campaign, Cathy Dondanville, a reader and a friend who I had not yet met, invited me to visit her home overlooking the Mississippi. Knowing that it would be the perfect way to recharge before the next busy phase of this project, I gratefully accepted.

Cathy’s home in the quiet farming community of Calhoun County, Illinois, is best reached by ferry as it sits on a sort of peninsula between the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers. She is a fabulous cook and a gracious hostess – AND this is her backyard!

I expected the weekend to be rejuvenating and the area to be lovely – and it was. But as often happens when Serendipity is in charge, there was even more to it.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, while writing “Surrendering to Serendipity” and editing the photographs, most of my time has been spent here in front of this computer. For a woman who was more often asked by friends, “Where are you off to next?” than, “How are you?” that signaled a profound shift in my life.

Although even I was surprised when I stepped back to look at that, I never minded. The writing was its own adventure and I loved it. In the same way that I never knew what a day on the road would bring, I woke up each morning excited to see what would show up on my screen.

Of the dozens of tales that might be told from each day or place, it never seemed up to me to choose. Something wanted to be said – I was here to listen and to punch the keys. The details, sensations and conversations that I did not know were living in my memory banks continually amazed me as they sprang to life as fresh and full as the day they occurred. The work never required discipline or determination as some people had suggested. Instead, I felt like the luckiest person I know to feel this way about my job.

So, although I welcomed a break after the intensity of the campaign and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to recharge with “River energy,” I didn’t feel any deficit. What happened caught me by surprise.

There is something inexpressibly freeing about being out wandering in unknown territory in the sweet light of early morning or late evening when I am not on assignment and have no agenda. I am there with camera gear, ready for anything that might be given, but without any expectation. Just being there – seeing what I see, exploring, absorbing, receiving without seeking – has a profound effect that I hadn’t felt in a while. It’s like when you stretch out on the floor at the end of a long day and all vertebrae click back into alignment. Everything is just right, no matter what.

For me, processing the photos from my weekend brought that same gentle click of realignment, so I want to share some in case they might do the same for you.

morning gold….

a quiet backwater…

evening sky…

and a blue ribbon of American Coots in a river of amber….

With love,

Gayle

A Treat and a Story

October 16, 2013 by Gayle Harper Leave a Comment

A Treat

First, here’s a splash of fall – a bit of calorie-free “eye candy,” (as someone commented on the Facebook page) as my thank you to you.

This was taken at Pere Marquette State Park near Alton, Illinois. From river level, the trees appeared mostly green, but looking down from the bluffs, the color took my breath away!

Thank You

The Kickstarter campaign is off to a wonderful start. As of this moment, we are at 47% funded! That leaves a long way to go in the remaining 19 days of the campaign if we are to be funded, but I am greatly encouraged by all the pledges, shares, likes and love! If you haven’t checked it out yet, please come see the video and the photography and the exciting Backer Awards. YOUR name can be printed in this first edition of “Surrendering to Serendipity,” if you like!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/328392966/surrendering-to-serendipity

OR go to www.kickstarter.com and look for “Gayle Harper” or “Surrendering to Serendipity”

A Story

If you happen to be on the newsletter list or you are already a Backer, you may have read this story, but it is such a beautiful illustration of the spirit of this whole adventure, that I want to share it here…

When you see the video on the Kickstarter site, watch for the sweet-looking couple wearing life jackets with the river in the background – they are Captain Jack Libbey and his wife, Dixie. In Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the Libbeys invited me out on their boat to explore the swampy, mysterious wilderness that is the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge, which protects the habitat of hundreds of species of migrating birds and animals along 261 miles of the Mississippi, is lush, wet and not easily accessible.

Captain Jack wanted people to experience this rare wilderness, so he retired after 30 years as a towboat Captain and created Mississippi Explorer Cruises in order to take them into it. On the rainy day that I met them, however, cruises were cancelled and it was just the three of us. It was an experience I will never forget. Captain Jack was a patient and enthusiastic guide, who seemed as delighted with each new discovery as I was and treated all of nature with a touching reverence.

When the video went up, I called and left a message for Captain Jack and Dixie to let them know they are featured in it. When Dixie called back, she told me that, sadly, Jack had passed away. Although I certainly had no inkling and Dixie said that hardly anyone knew of it, Jack had been battling cancer for some years.

The next day a generous pledge came through for the campaign from a woman named Donna Wilson. After I thanked her, she told me she was a childhood friend of Jack’s and felt this book would be the perfect way to honor him. The Backer Award she chose is for us to donate a book to the library, school or organization of her choice, imprinted with her dedication to Captain Jack.

Here’s what Donna told me –

“Nobody loved the river like Jack did. When we were kids, we often played Tom Sawyer. Of course I was Becky, Sometimes he would be Tom, sometimes Huck, depending on how adventurous he felt. When we were in first grade, Jack told me that he was going to be a captain of a big boat one day. He said that I could be his first mate. It sounded great to me. Then I grew up to pursue reality. His dream was his.”

“Surrendering to Serendipity” Is All About Connections

From its very inception, this project has been about connections. It’s not only people who live or have lived near the river, but everywhere. People feel connected to each other through their appreciation for the river, sometimes across great distances. They tell me that this project connects them with their hometown, their childhood, memories of their last great road trip or the one on their bucket list.

What inspires me to keep working to bring the book, “Surrendering to Serendipity” into reality is you and all the different ways you let me know that it matters to you. Literally every day there are comments posted here or on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/GayleHarper.MississippiRiver that make my heart sing.

There’s lots of discouraging news these days and it’s tempting to think that alienation and distrust are rampant. If this project can help to show the other side – that open-heartedness and connection thrives everywhere – then that is reason enough for me to keep working, happily.

Thank you for being part of this “raindrop adventure.” Thank you for your time, your comments, your pledges and your efforts to spread the word. I appreciate all of you!

Love, Gayle

The Birthday Surprise: Roadtripping With a Raindrop Moment #5

July 19, 2013 by Gayle Harper 12 Comments

It has rained incessantly since I arrived in Galena, Illinois, 48 hours ago. Just as I am leaving, I am granted a 10-minute reprieve, so I scurry like a crazed squirrel grabbing a few shots of the beautiful downtown historic district.

Galena, Illinois

Back on the Mississippi Great River Road, after stopping at a river overlook and watching a pair of bald eagles spiral up from the misty valley below, I pull back onto the highway and surprise myself by turning north instead of south. It’s not confusion and it isn’t really a decision, it’s just my way of aimless traveling while on this 90-day journey of a raindrop – it’s just “surrendering to serendipity.”

It seems I’m headed to Sinsinawa, about 25 miles north and just across the state line into Wisconsin. All I know about the place, aside from loving the lyrical sound of the name, is that it is home to an order of Dominican Catholic Sisters who reportedly bake very fine bread. Once away from the tall bluffs that line the River, the sky clears and the land flattens out. Precisely cultivated rows, empty now of their bounty, stretch away to infinity on both sides of the road.

Sinsinawa Mound is a surprise – poking inexplicably above the tabletop of farmland around it. It seems, however, perfectly suited to be the home of Sisters pledged to a higher calling. I drive the quiet, shaded campus without seeing anyone and I am not moved to stop until I come upon a cemetery. A s I walk among the long, orderly rows of simple white headstones, reading the names of the Sisters, I wonder about the stories of their lives.

On a small rise just beyond the cemetery, there is a brick pattern of concentric circles that I recognize as a labyrinth. A sign invites anyone to follow the path to the center while praying or meditating. I do, and when I stand in the innermost circle, there is a heightened awareness of all things being in perfect order. Refreshed and content, my visit seems complete.

Labyrinth at Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa Convent

Just as I reach my car, I hear someone say, “Come over here, will you, and help me a moment.” It’s a voice your mother might have used, or your third grade teacher – respectfully assuming that you will, of course, come immediately and do the right thing. I see her then – a petite woman with curly gray hair, standing beside an upturned bench. “This bench has blown over in the wind,” she says, “and we must set it upright.”

When our chore is complete, she beams up at me with an elfish grin and introduces herself as Sister Janette. We chat a few minutes, then sit together on the bench as she tells me about her community of Sisters and about her job here as the librarian. It turns out that while the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa are indeed bakers of bread, they are also bold activists who go wherever they are needed in the world to confront injustice. Since 1847, this order of more than 3,200 courageous women has fearlessly and quietly worked to eliminate racism, human trafficking and any behavior that impinges on human dignity.

Sister Janette’s eyes sparkle as she talks and I feel her spunk and her quiet effervescence. There is a river of subtle, but irrepressible, joy in her that bubbles frequently to the surface in contagious laughter. When I tell her about the 90-day journey of a raindrop, she is so delighted that it makes us both giggle. She asks about places I have been and what lies ahead, relishing each answer. She is, as my grandmother would have said “just plain tickled with the whole idea.” We laugh and talk like old friends, catching up on each other’s lives.

When I give Sister Janette a postcard of the journey, she looks at it quietly for a long time. Finally, she looks up with glowing eyes and says, “You know, Gayle, today is my birthday. This card and this time with you is my birthday present.” The smiles that we share then make my heart feel like it could burst. So this is why I had come – to help a friend celebrate her birthday.

I give her a birthday hug then and ask if I may take her picture. She answers in that “teacherly” no-nonsense voice that leaves no space for disagreement, “Yes, of course. But I shall be holding the postcard.”