Easton Map and History

The County Seat of Talbot County. Established around early religious settlements and a court of law, Historic Downtown Easton is today a centerpiece of fine specialty shops, business and cultural activities, unique restaurants, and architectural fascination. Treelined streets are graced with various period structures and remarkable homes, carefully preserved or re stored. Because of its historical significance, historic

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Easton has earned distinction as the “Colonial Capitol of the Eastern Shore” and was honored as number eight in the book “The 100 Best Small Towns in America.” With a population of over 16,500, Easton offers the best of many worlds including access to large metropolitan areas like Baltimore, Annapolis, Washington, and Wilmington. For a walking tour and more history visit https:// tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/easton-maryland/.

Bringing Light

to living. And they serve as easy reminders for us, the readers, reading over the narrator’s shoulder. I wouldn’t call it one of the world’s great books, more along the lines of Cliff Notes to living. It is a book that helped me get through a dark winter a number of years ago.

Mandino writes:

“I will greet this day with love in my heart... Henceforth will I look on all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge. I will greet this day with love in my heart.”

Reading allows us to temporarily escape the darkness. It can also open us up to perspectives that help us navigate or make the most of whatever situation we find ourselves in. In his book Love Is the Way, Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, talks about how his grandmother

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Bringing Light

could take food and ingredients that many people would pass by and, in preparing soul food, would create something transcendent. He calls it “making do.”

“They took what was leftover and made sure no one was left out,” Curry writes. “They took foods that were put down and cast out by others and lifted the hungry up. That’s a miracle. That’s taking what is old and making something new. That’s making do!... (it’s about) taking what is old, what is given, what is, and making something new. It’s about taking an old reality and creating a new possibility.”

Taking common, everyday reality, which we can be so quick to walk by and not live fully into and giving it new life. With the right perspective, everything we encounter can take on new life. Curry uses the example of Moses and the burning bush in the Bible. Moses encounters God in the bush that burns but is not consumed. And, in paying respect, Moses removes his shoes. If we look with new eyes, we can have these experiences all the time. Curry cites Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “Aurora Leigh,” in which she writes:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees it, takes off his shoes;

The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.

Every common bush is afire with God. Base and humble-sounding ingredients can create amazing dishes; and even in the darkness, we can still see light.

And we have another means of getting through darker months and darker times: remembering that we have been here before. When the sun sets and it gets dark, we know that the sun will rise again soon.

We can do something more with

that knowledge and experience. We 48

can help others get through it. And it is exactly our experience of darker and lower times that is valuable to others who are going through it.

This is where our light becomes love and can change lives. In his book Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging, Brennan Manning ties it altogether.

“In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift,” he wrote. “If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.”

When we are going through the dark winter of the year, remembering that it is going through those times that connects us to everyone else ~ that shows us our light. That connects us through love.

“Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men… In Love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve.”

Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-profit organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.