Navoo, IL
I love my family. That is, the Clives (not that I don't love my own family, read on). The positive and almost unexplainable feelings and emotions that comes with belonging to a family in a foreign land is magical, especially at this holiday season. We are in Navoo, staying at a home-like log cabin, that is another super plus. The covered wagon ride today was one of my favorites. The fact that the pioneers crossed the Mississippi River in a temperature that was -12F is unimaginable for me. We visited the Jonathan Browning gunsmith shop, the John Taylor home, the tin smith shop, the post office, and the Scovil bakery. At night, mom told us amazing ancestor stories as we set around the table. Stories such as the common ancestor of Spencer and Mardee--Julie Hill Johnson and others'. Our pioneers are incredibly strong and devoted people. I need and want to internalize the spirit radiated from their magnificent souls. City Beautiful, it was beautiful not just because of its past heyday resulted from commerce, but more importantly it was because of its settlers, who were so willing to believe, to give, to devote, to sacrifice, to follow, to be drenched by the sweat of trials and hardships that who they were was the deepest beauty that this city rests on. Navoo, the city from where my inspiration flows.
