Magical Memoir Moments
The Gift of Peace — Sacred Pauses — in a Frenzied Season
In the midst of holiday frenzy, how do you find peace? This post invites you to take a Sacred Pause. Stop. Look. and Listen.
Continuing the Great Adventure: 1966 – 2015
Two Mennonite college students met as roommates in 1966 and have kept in touch. This year we celebrate our 45th college class reunion and then take up another adventure — to Cuba!
Grandparenting: How it Helps Us to Simplify
I’m sitting at my desk, looking out at the mountains, and thinking about speaking to more than 100 Mennonite women this Friday night at the Amigo Centre, a place I know well, not too far from Sturgis, Michigan. The subject is Recovering Simplicity, a topic that Mennonites have grappled with for a long time and…
On Being Not Quite Amish: A Mennonite Perspective
Last evening, as Stuart and I came into Union Station by train here in Chicago, we followed two young Amish families. They walked rapidly, carrying a matching powder blue luggage set without wheels, assorted other bags, and several babies. The men wore black hats. The women black bonnets, black hose, and long dresses. Everyone around…
Mennonite Memoir, Lutheran Setting, Universal Spirit: Reconnecting After Twenty Years
My Mennonite memoir had a Lutheran birthplace: Valparaiso University. I was a Senior Fellow in the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts (LFP), headquartered at Valparaiso, in 1994-95. The name Valparaiso means Vale of Paradise. Mark Schwehn, who led both Christ College and the LFP when I was there, wrote the book that…
Are You a Sprinter or a Marathoner? Is There a Third Way?
My daughter just ran ten miles for the first time with her friend Kristi. Having my propensity toward rosy cheeks, she got beet red: She did not, however, inherit the capacity for long-distance running from me or from her father. She earned every mile from her own effort. Having worked hard to run in two…
How to Get Ready to Die: Easter Lessons from My Mennonite Mother
“Just don’t say, ‘She fell into the arms of Jesus.’” We were talking about death and funerals, fun topics for a 65-year-old woman and her 87-year-old mother. When Mother described the clichés and embellished phrases of some obituaries, we both howled in recognition, eager to reduce the serious, universal, subject of death with just enough…
Staring Death in the Face: How I Became a Gutsy Mennonite Memoirist
Are Mennonites “gutsy”? How about memoirists? My guess is that you may have had more problem answering “yes” to the first question than to the second. So here’s a Mennonite confession. I’ve always admired gutsy-ness. If you read to the very end of this post, you’ll understand why. First, let me introduce you to a…
Amish and Mennonite: What's the Difference?
Small groups like the Mennonites and Amish, which only surface in most people’s awareness when the national media pay attention, can confuse people. Especially when both these small groups contain a myriad of varieties. So it’s not surprising that MennoMedia’s Third-Way Cafe has become the go-to place online for people who ask: What’s the difference…
100 New Beginnings: Your Chance to Be a Winner
Well folks, here we are. After reading 100 memoirs, writing 400 blog posts, and drafting page after page of memoir, we are entering the last trimester of labor. 100 Days Until Launch. Yea! Thank you, thank you, for sustaining me thus far. The best is yet to be. The goal has always been more than…