100 Memoirs

Last Sunday, Stuart and I celebrated the last day of August with one of our many bike rides in the hill/woods/lake country here in southwestern Michigan. We have enjoyed watching the grape vines become green, then produce fruit, and soon we will get to observe the harvest.  Next Tuesday another sign of the season arrives–all [...]

Guest blogger Lanie Tankard returns today to talk about memories of her childhood using  “luminous particulars”-a phrase borrowed from Jane Kenyon and Ezra Pound via my former colleague at Goshen College Ann Hostetler. Lanie’s word for those wonderfully evocative objects is “touchstones.” If you enjoy this beautiful essay, you may want to read her first [...]

You know that feeling you get at the end of an exotic vacation to Disney World or New York City or Istanbul? Or the feeling in August that summer is slipping through your fingers? A feeling akin to nausea?
You wish you had time now to organize your pictures, mow the yard, sit on the deck, [...]

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 a [...]

Rock music is like a foreign language to me even though I graduated from high school in 1966 and college in 1970.
Like many explanations of my most anomalous behaviors, this one goes back to being Mennonite. And a little geeky (meaning bookish–not a math whiz!) on top of that.
I like to joke that I sang [...]

Summertime and the leaves are green and the sky is blue! It’s the season of childhood and freedom. I remember summers long ago–bare feet, walks in the creek, kick the can and hide-and-go-seek.  And all the fresh fruit and vegetables straight from the garden or the market.
In the summer life is one big bowl of [...]

Time for a little history report. My first blog post ever was written for the Fetzer Institute Campaign for Love and Forgiveness website. The subject was the week-long volunteer opportunity I was given to help with Katrina recovery in New Orleans. March 24-April, 3 blog posts appeared, and USA Today published my op-ed article about [...]

Embarrassing story:  When I was a newbie grad student at the University of Texas at Austin, I turned in a review of a book that my professor did not recognize.  He asked me why I chose this book to review.  I responded, “Because it was on my shelf.” He looked horrified.
As Paul Newman might say, [...]

Forrest Church’s voice rings in my head today. I finished his memoir last night, and  many of his themes are ones deeply embedded in my own life.  His 2008 book, Love & Death: My Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow, published by Beacon Press, focuses on the two big ideas of the title, especially [...]

The poet Gary Snyder once said, “Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there.”
Stuart and I found a place called Stratford Woods four years ago, dug in (literally) with the first new house in a 22-lot development, and looked for an opportunity to help build community.  The picture above [...]