Want to leave a legacy?

Make the last third of life the best ever.

Hello, friends, Grandma Shirley here. I'm co-authoring a book with Marilyn McEntyre called The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children's Children, forthcoming from Broadleaf Books, May, 2022.

My life now is focused on becoming an elder, serving rising elders and future generations, learning together about the nature of love.

In 2013 I published Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World. I was also a professor, a college president (Goshen College), and a foundation executive (the Fetzer Institute).

Make Your Own Magic!

Most recent blog posts

From This Valley They Say We Are Going: Another Turning Point

A few days ago I wrote about the long, cold winter our family has endured. This week new life has erupted. Daffodils are budding, and the early ones are dancing in the breeze. This beautiful passage from the second chapter of the Song of Solomon speaks for us: “Arise, my love, my fair…

The Crucible of Winter: What Has It Taught You?

“Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.” — Katherine May I have been through a very painful winter. Have you too? Today, turning the calendar page today to March 1 felt liberating. Then a walk in balmy, windy, air, listening to birds, looking for crocuses and pansies, admiring the…

What Keeps Me Standing: The Wisdom of Black Grandmothers

In the midst of both a pandemic and an anti-racist social justice movement in our country, I find myself, as a white person, a mother, grandmother, and now a caregiver, searching for the wisdom of black grandmothers. I believe black women may be the most resilient people in the world and that their strength gives…