Magical Memoir Moments
The Return Stage of Pilgrimage: Reflecting on Celtic Spirituality
I’m back in the red chair looking out at fog-covered mountains, feeling grateful. The dire hurricane forecasts at end of our trip to Ireland gave us pause, but all of us eighteen pilgrims on Tour I of Eklectic Pilgrimages to Ireland have returned safely. Thanks be to God. Our itinerary kept us stepping. In fact, one day…
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…
Our New City: Pittsburgh
First it was Brooklyn. Now it is Pittsburgh. The grannynanny gig takes us to cool places. I’m trying to learn all I can about Pittsburgh. I ask all my new friends for help. Let’s start with geography. This is a city of three rivers and 466 bridges. In the U. S., only New York City…
What I Love About Portraits: The Beauty of Every Face
Almost everything I remember clearly about the past has to do with a person, often with a face. These days, granddaughter Lydia is teaching me about the early origins of love for the human face. Below is 29 seconds of a typical interaction with her at ten weeks of age. She is alert and curious,…
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…
The Purpose of Memories: The Question I Am Carrying from May
The month of May zipped by so fast. It was a full month. It was a busy month. Let’s start with this man and his talk at the Family History Conference: New Arrivals in a New Land, in Lancaster, PA, on May 20. John L. Ruth, historian and storyteller, told how three ships came sailing…
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.
A Pennsylvania Christmas: A Living Example of Jubilación
On the way east from Collegeville, Minnesota, the last stop we made before turning south was at Landis Homes, the retirement community where my mother lives. There 40 descendants of Richard and Barbara Ann Hess Hershey gathered to celebrate Christmas. In the middle of our circle sat the grande dame, the matriarch, the dowager empress….