Souvenir from Mary Land

Well, I'm back from my little vacation down to the Slower Lower. While the northern part of Delaware is metropolitan, with all the bank business in Wilmington, the southern part of the state is much more rural and similar to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which it borders. Since we lived down there for three years, we enjoy going back down and seeing family and catching up with old friends.

One of the things I miss the most about living down there is the weekly auction at Crumpton. Last year I found some really great stuff. This year I only found a few really small items, so I was a little bummed, but as I was doing my last sweep of the leftover field, I did find something in the dirt that I picked up:

It wasn't there the first few times I walked around, but as I made my way back to the car, there she was.

 I'm really not a religious person, but seeing religious effigies dirty and/or discarded always makes me a little uncomfortable, Not quite as much as seeing abandoned dolls and stuffed animals (I believe in the magic of Childhood more than I believe in certain religious teachings) but it's along the same lines. Earlier this year, I wrote about the book Looking for Mary (or, the Blessed Mother and Me) by Beverly Donofrio. I relate to her in the way that she was raised Catholic and then began to question those 'truths', only to go back later and re-examine them. She decided rather than think of Mary as exactly what her upbringing taught her, to reconsider the significance of her, and appreciate Her for her own personal reasons.

Much of the book is dedicated to her quest to find pictures and statues and other memorabilia of Mary and building her collection, and I also have a small collection of Mary and Infant of Prague statues. I've found them at estate sales and thrift shops, and the one I treasure most was my great-grandmother's, but I've never had one find me before.