Magical Memoir Moments
Who Else Wants Simplicity? April Yamasaki's Sacred Pauses Offers a Way
We all know about the value of silence, taking breaks, and breathing deeply. We know we’re supposed to do these things. But then we get completely involved in our work. And we forget. April Yamasaki, a Mennonite minister from Abbottsford, British Columbia, has written a book to help us remember: Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for…
The Girl Who Opened Up My World: A Birthday Tribute to Vicky
Before Vicky died at age 35, she changed my life. In 1954, when I was six years old, almost everyone I knew was either a farmer or a Mennonite or both. Then Vicky Martinez blew into my life — all the way from Manhattan! She stayed with us for two weeks. Vicky was like me….
The Things She Couldn’t Carry: Touching the Hem of My Grandmother’s Garment
After we die, who is left to tell our story? And what is left of who we were? My maternal grandmother Anna Mary Herr Hess died at the age of 56 when I was not quite three years old; hence, I do not consciously remember her living presence. Almost everything I know about my grandmother has…
Rhoda Janzen's New Memoir: A Christian Century Review
If you have been following the bestselling author Rhoda Janzen since the publication of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, and many people who read this blog, especially this post, have been doing so, you will want to buy her second memoir. I’m deeply grateful to Janzen for helping both Mennonites and others, both secular…
Simplicity: A Very Short Mennonite Memoir
“The more we have, the less we own.” Meister Eckhart I grew up in a simpler age, the 1950’s. We lived on a 100-acre dairy farm. We were Mennonite. I should know all about simplicity, right? Of course, it’s not that simple. Recently someone asked for advice on how to simplify his life. In turn,…
Yeats, Mennonites, and Memoir
At the Mennonite/s Writing VI conference March 30-April 1, 2012, the theme of “the self” recurred often. Poet and scholar Ann Hostetler drew attention to this theme in her talk: “The Self in Mennonite Garb, or, Where Does the Writing Come From?” Hostetler has been thinking about the lyric voice ever since she put together…
Another Mennonite Memoir: The Steppes are the Colour of Sepia
My fellow memoir reader Clif let me know that the review I wrote of the following book has now been published in the Mennonite Quarterly Review.It has not been posted online yet, so here it is for those of you who are Canadian, Mennonite, or just interested in good family stories. The Steppes are the…
Two Wedding Blessings for Our Daughter and Her Husband
Yesterday our only daughter became a bride and wife. Today is Mother’s Day. Need I tell you that my heart was full this morning, even before Stuart placed a handwritten card and a cup of Starbucks coffee on the bedstand and even before the last event of the wedding–brunch with the two families and the wedding…
Boy, Did I Love Lucy: A Mini-Memoir
If a genie had appeared to me when I was ten and offered me anything my heart desired, the answer would have poured out of me. Some girls want ponies. Some want Barbies. Some are generous enough to think of others first, asking for world peace or food for the hungry. Others go straight for…
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