The Wedding Dress

Virginia Ellis is a new author for me. I picked up The Wedding Dress because of the intricate handwork depicted on the dust jacket. When I read the inside cover and saw it was set right after the Civil War, I knew I would probably enjoy the book and I did.
Three sisters are left to deal with the aftermath of war on Oak Creek Plantation. Julia and Victoria were barely brides before their husbands marched off with the Confederate Army; now they are widows with barely enough money left to see them through until Spring.
Their 17-year-old sister, Claire, despairs of ever finding a husband with so few young men returning from the fighting. Julia comes up with a way to lift all their spirits - they will sew a wedding dress for Claire even though there is no groom in sight. The planning and construction of the gown brings a sparkle back to Claire's eyes and hope back into all their hearts.
As the dress takes shape, the sisters welcome the arrival of Sergeant Monroe Tacy. He has come to fulfill a dying man's last request, but his presence begins a series of events that will change the sisters lives.
I have always liked books set during the period of the Civil War. This was a perfect heartwarming story for a snowy winter weekend.

I love Kate Morton's writing. The Forgotten Garden takes the reader on a journey through generations and across continents as two women try to uncover their family's secret past.
From the back cover: "A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book - a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dock master and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Casandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled."
Some people do not like it when a book changes back and forth between time periods and speakers, but as long as the year is noted at the beginning of each chapter, I do not have a problem with it. I will continue to read everything this talented Australian author publishes.

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet has become one of the most beloved classics of our time. I first read it in the 60's and was very impressed by its poetic truths.
The Prophet is a series of essays covering such topics as love, marriage, children, work, freedom, self-knowledge, friendship, religion, beauty, pain and death - a total of twenty-eight in all. Even though I remembered some of the passages, I hadn't read the book for several years.
Here is one I remembered about children: "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."
It was natural to say "my" children as though they belonged to me. I think reading this passage made me realize they were (are) their own selves. It helped me raise them (I think) as independent individuals.
Gibran's essay on Love is a classic section repeated by many lovers, I know - "To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night...." - but the one on marriage is the one I like best.....
"You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."
The officiate at our wedding used this passage which may be part of why it is one of my favourites, but I think all of Gibran's essays are inspiring and full of meaning. It was good to go back and re-read this classic.