Growing With Our Grandchildren

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Hello, friends, Shirley Showalter here, co-author with Marilyn McEntyre of The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children's Children, from Broadleaf Books, May, 2022. Having embraced elderhood, we invite you to do the same.

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).

Most recent blog posts

Sam and Todd Dickinson at the Bull's Head pub, Lititz, PA

Living a Dream: Owning A Bookstore

How many people living in a big city dream of getting away from it all, moving to a small town, and setting up a shop? How many harried professionals wish they could buy books, read books, and talk to customers every day? How many parents of young children wish they could go into a family…

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Daddy adn Mother with little brother Henry and me, about 1955.

One is Silver and the Other Gold: Making Friends after 70

When I was about five years old and discouraged about some relationship with another child, I asked my parents how to make a friend. My parents were both young, in their twenties, but on this subject they were wise beyond their years. “To make a friend, be a friend.” Did my mother say it, or…

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Neighbors Donna and Anna having an early-morning chat.

Porch Culture: Where Architecture and Hospitality Meet

A few mornings ago, I stepped out my front door here in Warwick Woodlands, and there was neighbor Donna talking to neighbor Anna over the porch railing. Just the sight of them gave me a pleasant little frizzon — that “electric feeling behind the navel” that informs me that something profound is speaking to me.…

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