Magical Memoir Moments
Feeling Useful: A Place Where Age and Love Meet
In my twenties and thirties and forties, I was a professor. In my fifties I was a college president. In my sixties I was a foundation executive. Now that I am six months away from age seventy, I’ve been promoted to “granny nanny.” But what, exactly, does that mean? Obviously, it means helping to keep…
What Remains: The Most Lasting Images from 24 Days in the Baltic Region . . . And a New Chapter Begins
Travel brings many rewards and pleasures too obvious to mention. But it also contains a danger: too many miles covered too quickly can all blur at the beginning and fade at the end. That’s one reason to take pictures. Looking back over the entire set of 340 photos taken over 24 days of travel, some…
A Cartoon With Uncanny Accuracy: Predicting the Winding Blog Path
See how yellow this cartoon is? The darkest areas are tape that is no longer transparent after a decade. My colleague Amy clipped this image out of a newspaper ten years ago when she heard I was thinking about becoming a blogger.. For some reason, I kept it. I could not have known, then, that I…
Teaching as Satyagraha: Remembering Christopher Dock as I Read Gandhi
One of the themes of jubilación is this: Gather it up. Give it away. When your vocation is learning and teaching, it’s good to gather up mentors and give them away. Here’s a mentor of mine: Christopher Dock (c.1698-1771) was a remarkable Mennonite schoolmaster whose book, School Management, was the first educational philosophy and advice manual…
The Four Ashramas of Life: Connecting Wisdom from Benedictine to Hindu to Anabaptist Sources
Brother Aaron was our liaison to Saint John’s Abbey at the Collegeville Institute last fall. He always came to our scholars’ seminars with a resource to offer. When he came to my seminar on jubilación, he brought with him a handout on the four ashramas of life from the Hindu tradition. Here is Sri Sri Ravi…
The Best is Yet to Be: Joyful Aging From Browning to Lennon to Carpenter
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made –Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra,” 1864 In 1980, John Lennon, just before he was killed at the age of 40, rediscovered these words, simplified them, and set them to music after Yoko Ono had…
Grandma Power: Why I Marched
I didn’t go to hear celebrities. I didn’t go because I expected to agree with every sign or every chant. I didn’t go because I thought a march would instantly solve any problem. I went because I felt called. I had the very same feeling Teresa Shook, retired lawyer and grandmother of four, had when…
Jubilee Time: Chronos or Kairos?
This has been a week when I am back to keeping a schedule. Or trying to. Today a forgot a lunch date until 20 minutes past the appointed hour. So embarrassing! It was a very busy morning, starting with 6:30 birthday song chorus from Owen and Julia for Granddad’s birthday, then a trip to the…
Teaching and Learning Across the Life Span: 2017 Here We Come!
As the new year begins, I am connected to young grandchildren and to the honors students, seniors at Eastern Mennonite University, I am preparing to teach this semester. Beyond this semester, I look forward to becoming a “grannynanny” again next fall.
Vocation: How Do We Listen for a Joyful Calling at Any Age?
Vocation, or calling, gives purpose to life. The questions that help us listen for who we are and what God wants for us are remarkably similar at any age. My young colleague Jess reminded me of this truth this week.
- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next »