Want to leave a legacy?

Make the last third of life the best ever.

Hello, friends. I’m the author of a memoir about growing up Mennonite called Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World. I was also a college president and professor (Goshen College), and a foundation executive (the Fetzer Institute). You can read more on my about page.
My writing and blogging themes have evolved from memoir to aging joyfully (jubilación). My personal vision statement:
My life is focused on becoming an elder, serving rising elders and future generations, learning from them all that I can about the nature of love. 
I post one blog each month. The subjects that fascinate me include grandparenting, wisdom, good writing, creativity, travel, and spirituality.  Looking for companionship on all these adventures. Welcome aboard!

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Most recent blog posts

Pansies pushing up out of dead leaves.

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…

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Poet Marilyn Nelson, Wikipedia photo.

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…

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The Washington Monument as seen from under the Museum of African American HistoryThe

The Means of Saving Us: One Good, Sacred, Memory

We live in partisan times in America. Depending on where we stand politically, we see different problems, but everyone seems to agree we have problems. Serious problems. We yearn for peace. Yet peace is not possible without “liberty and justice for all.” Or, to use the framework that John Paul Lederach teaches, derived from Psalm…

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