Magical Memoir Moments
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….
The Things They Didn’t Carry: Grandparent Jubilación
After the grandchildren leave, the house heaves a sigh. Some of the objects left behind carry the stories and await the next visit.
A Gift from the Memory Sea: A Moment Captured in Another Family’s Photo Album
Our neighbors the Martins lived less than a quarter mile away. Sometimes my brother and I rode our bikes down their long lane, hoping to play with the Martin children: Carol, Elaine, Danny and Davy. After I left home for college, I lost touch with the Martins. Carol’s younger sister Elaine came back into my…
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…
Three Reasons to Read Your Memoir in New York City
Some writers leave the provinces and yield to the siren call of the city in their youth. My favorite author Willa Cather did that. She was published by Alfred A. Knopf, a powerful imprint designating quality, so powerful it has survived many mergers and is part of Penguin Random House, one of the Big Five…
Are You a Pantser or a Plotter? Approaches to Memoir Writing and Life
Among writers, the question is this one: Are you a pantser or a plotter? When I first heard this question, I immediately linked it to my graduate adviser at the University of Texas at Austin. After I passed my Ph.D. exams, he said, Just think of finishing your dissertation this way: put your seat in…
Three Things Every Grandparent Learns Again and Every Wise Parent Knows
Today’s post was going to be about children and memoir storytelling. I had it all set up like this: The post would be the third in a series of how my grandchildren are my spiritual teachers. The first post (2011) was about learning attention and proprioception (awareness of the body) from a baby. The second…
Playing and Working: Launching a Book while Helping to Launch Children
If what you love to do most is learn, then your work can always be play. And if the book you make is about childhood, what better way to learn and work than to play with children? That’s what Stuart and I have been doing this week. Here are our two teachers and playmates. Meet…