Chapter VIII

In the spring and summer Ellen White often worked in the garden with her husband, tending the flowers and cultivating the vegetables. We find them setting out strawberry and raspberry plants. We find her trading roots and plants with neighbors. We find her on shopping trips downtown often accompanied by Adventist neighbors who greatly admired her good judgment in making purchases and valued her practical counsel. We find her busy with her sewing, making clothes for her own family and for neighbors who were in need.EGWP 10.3

But also, she believed in recreation. Her first writing on this subject points out that “Sabbath-keepers as a people labor too hard without allowing themselves change or periods of rest. Recreation is needful to those who are engaged in physical labor and is still more essential for those whose labor is principally mental.” ^{1Testimonies for the Church 1:514.} But she drew a line between “recreation” and “amusement.” One she saw as beneficial, the other at times fraught with peril.EGWP 10.4

We find her attending a day of recreation planned for the employees and guests of the Battle Creek Sanitarium at nearby Lake Goguac. She commented on the good midday meal and noted the improvement on the grounds with the addition of swings for the children. She wrote of the people assembling to hear her husband speak “in regard to Colorado and California.” She herself addressed a crowd of 200 on one such occasion.EGWP 10.5

She always found it easy to relax in the mountains. On several summers she and her husband took working vacations in the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of Boulder, Colorado. On such occasions she might be seen in the saddle riding along a mountain trail with her husband and relatives or friends, or she might be found stretched out on a blanket or buffalo robe on a grassy spot, where she would read and then doze off in restful sleep. She enjoyed the wild flowers, the rushing streams, the towering rocky cliffs, the lofty trees, the varicolored sunset. In nature she saw the majestic work of the Creator.EGWP 11.1

She loved the water and was a pretty good sailor. As a young woman she had often journeyed by coastal boat on trips between Portland, Maine, and Boston or New York City, and on the canal boats of New York state. Later she sailed twice between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, then across the Atlantic, and later across the Pacific.EGWP 11.2

On one day dedicated to recreation in northern California in the early days of the Pacific Press, the time was divided between the beach and a sailboat trip. Invited to join the group, she took her helpers and her nieces, for whom she was caring, leaving her writing behind and joining wholeheartedly in the activities. An Adventist captain, owner of a sailboat, entertained the large group by taking them out through the Golden Gate for a trip on the open ocean. In the absence of a favorable wind they were towed by a steam tug through the Golden Gate and to the open sea. Some were seasick. But not Ellen White.EGWP 11.3

She had just reached the point in her writing on the life of Christ where she was to deal with the stilling of the tempest on Galilee, and the experience on the open ocean made a deep impression. The captain looked at her and commented, “She doesn’t say a word to anyone.” What she wrote her husband in Battle Creek reveals what was going through her mind:EGWP 11.4

The waves ran high, and we were tossed up and down so very grandly. I was highly elevated in my feeling, but had no words to say to anyone. It was grand. The spray dashing over us, the watchful captain giving his orders, the ready hands to obey. The wind was blowing strong and I never enjoyed anything so much in my life....

I was filled with awe with my own thoughts. Everything seems so grand on the ocean, the waves running so high. The majesty of God and His works occupied my thoughts. He holds the winds in His hands, He controls the waters.... In the sight of God [we] were mere specks upon the broad, deep waters of the Pacific.... Yet angels of heaven were sent ...to guard that little sailboat that was careening over the waves. O the wonderful works of God....

How vividly before my mind was the boat with the disciples buffeting the waves. I’m glad I went upon the water. I can write better than before ^{2Letter 5, 1876.}