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.

Want to make your life as a grandparent even better? Please join us!

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. Previously, I was a professor, a college president (Goshen College), and a foundation executive (the Fetzer Institute).

Make Your Own Magic!

Most recent blog posts

Grandchildren l-r: Lydia, Owen, and Julia. They all came to Lititz to celebrate the Hershey Family Christmas we missed in 2020.

“Whatever Happened to That Book You Were Going to Write?”

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may recall that I wrote a prayer on February 15, 2020, asking for guidance and strength as I undertook a new book-writing project. I had no idea that a month later the whole country would be closed down due to a pandemic. Nor could I have…

Juneteenth: A Black Holiday With a Place for White People Also?

Positioned between two worlds of Harrisonburg, VA, and Lititz, PA, right now, I am sitting in Lititz, listening and watching virtual performances of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival broadcast from Harrisonburg. Under the direction of Amanda Gookin, the festival is both in-person and virtual as the nation emerges from the isolation of a pandemic. …

L-R Sisters Doris and Sue, me, Suzanne Groff, Dale Groff

Was Tom Wolfe Right or Wrong: Can We Go Home Again?

“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood … back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time—back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.” –Thomas Wolfe Thomas Wolfe…