Souper Meals with Sabah and Mom
“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers,” admits Blanche DuBois, an aging belle in Tennessee Williams’ classic play A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche has had the props knocked from under her and has nowhere to turn except to her sister Stella, also living...
Moments of Discovery # 8: What’s Inside Mom’s Buffet?
Mother’s house on Anchor Road has been sold. We sold it last fall, just a year ago. After more than seventy years, the Longeneckers do not own this house. But that doesn’t mean there are no memories or longings for home. The Welsh have a word for such a feeling,...
Friends from Faraway and Long Ago: Kitsa and Lydia
Kitsa and Lydia were among the very few women in my graduating class at Eastern Mennonite College who did not wear a prayer veiling atop their heads. Why? Because they were not Mennonite. Lydia Mattar from Jerusalem, Jordan and Kitsa Adamidou from Salonika, Greece...
Learning 101 with Ananda and Ben: Role Reversal
My Pilates instructor is a spring chicken, and my writing coach is young too, just thirty-nine years old, younger than either of our children. Still, They are teaching me. Since childhood, we have been conditioned to think of our teachers as older than we are. Such a...
Thanksgiving 2015: A Sweet Story, Pudgy Hands, and an Invitation
Are you a thankful person? Do you ever think about what your life would be like without certain blessings? Robert Emmons, touted as one of the world’s leading experts on the science of gratitude, says that “one effective way of stimulating gratitude” is to reflect on...
Signs & a Wonder in St. Marys, Georgia
It’s true! St. Marys, Georgia is idyllic. Only a 40-minute drive north of Jacksonville, Florida . . . . . . historic St. Marys has a storybook setting on the St. Marys River – white picket fences, charming Victorian inns, and majestic magnolia trees and live...
Help! Vintage Photo Needs Caption
Every week, The New Yorker magazine features a Cartoon Caption Contest, inviting readers to submit a caption for consideration. After three finalists are chosen, readers vote for the winning caption. Recently, in my cache of Kodak carousels I found a slide from the...
Quiet Lives Matter: My Brother Mark
My brother Mark was my first baby. He was born when I was 12, and I soon became a mother to him. I even have a picture to prove it, a blurry movie still from one of Aunt Ruthie's 16 millimeter camera shoots. I most certainly bottle fed him and changed his diapers....
Ian and Jenna’s A-Mazing Mystery Trip with Nana’s Twisty Turns
Dr. Seuss explores the maze of life in his famous book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! On the first page he assures readers: You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. And that’s just what Jenna and Ian did...
Halloween Advice from my Good Witch of the North
MY STORY Dorothy had the Good Witch of the North to give her “magical protection from fatal harm” on her journey to the land of Oz and back. Yet she followed an uneven path, using her brain, sometimes thinking with her heart, and slowly but surely developing courage....
Ray & Ruth: A Sparkling 40th Wedding Anniversary
True Love This month would be the 75th wedding anniversary of my parents, Ray and Ruth Longenecker had they lived. True, they bickered from time to time, but I knew their love was deep and abiding. I rested in the assurance that they would never divorce. There were...
Grace Notes: Mary Grace Martin & her Pump Organ
Great Aunt Mary Grace would turn 117 this week on October 14 if she were still alive. When I was young, the Longenecker family visited Mary Grace Martin at her cottage at Mt. Gretna, PA. What I remember most about her appearance was her pleasant aura and a gap-toothed...
A Touch of Amish: Busy-Day Recipe
My sister Jan ("Janice," growing up) is easily the best cook in our family. One of my birthday presents from her last year was a cookbook entitled Amish Cooking. In the head-line this week, I say “A Touch of Amish” because the recipes are quick and easy and many...
Red, Yellow, Green Apples, Fall’s Traffic Lights: Purple Passages September 2015
Humorous Slices A green apple, a yellow apple, and a red apple, it’s like a fruity traffic light you can eat . . . . Did you know that my love has the consistency of applesauce? It’s true—and juicy. ~ Jarod Kintz I ate a slice of humble pie, and it tasted like...
Moments of Discovery # 7: The Story Behind the Hidden $ Bill
Dollar Discovery! On September 10, 2015 I opened an envelope dated April 30,1962 that Mother sent me in college. I had read her letter then, but did not open the Bossler Mennonite Church bulletin where she had tucked a dollar bill (series date 1957) until now. I...
A Cloistered Life at Peachey House: A Prequel
The closest thing I ever came to living in a convent was my year in the dormitory at Lancaster Mennonite School. It was much like living in the dorm at my alma mater, Eastern Mennonite College, now a University, but only more awkward. “Awkward?” you ask. “In what way...
My Year in a Convent
Nuns live in convents. At least that was true in America in the1960s. Strictly speaking I was not an actual nun, a Catholic sister with a habit like Karen Leahy, who left her convent at Mount Maria to pursue a literary life and experience more freedom. (My review of...
Finding Friends & Hatching Plans
A toy train and a baby doll. That’s what these brother and sister pairs are exchanging with each other. Trading is fun among friends, no matter what their size. Big or little, old or young – most people like to exchange gifts, conversation, sometimes even big ideas....