What’s Your Name Again?
My name is Marian. What’s yours? A familiar greeting . . . Names have always fascinated me. I’ve even written about names and naming in previous posts: What’s in a Name? and The Name Game. But what about name changing? Celebrities, like actors, musicians and other...
Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?
Do you lose things? Misplace your glasses, keys, cellphone, or worse? A few weeks ago I saw advertised a bit of wizardry called TrackR bravo, a coin-sized, wireless device that attaches to anything you want to track. The two wholesome-looking, geeky guys who invented...
Moments of Discovery # 6: Whip up Recipes, Stir in Imagination
Clearing out a house after death is a sacred act, yet no amount of holiness assigned to this task can dismiss the back-breaking, shoulder-aching, neck-craning job of sorting, recycling, and passing on to others the possessions of a loved one. Aside from clothing and...
Enchanted April: Renewal and Possibilities
Are you wishing for different weather just now? Maybe a change in scenery is all you need to perk up. After a rough winter, the drowsy dreaminess of a warm, languid clime may sound very appealing. If so, you have something in common with the middle-aged Lottie Wilkins...
Our Easter in Ukraine
Khristos voskres! Christ is risen indeed! These words spoken in Russian are the very first expression of Easter joy we hear on Sunday, April 24, 2011 as folks gather at Birth of Christ Church in Kiev, Ukraine, preparing for the worship hour. Here is the choir after...
A Robbery, Sad Friday, and a Clump of Daffodils
“I’ve been robbed!’ These are the only words artist/performer Cliff can utter as he walks toward his Dodge van, noticing that the air-vent window on the driver’s side has been pushed in at an odd angle. It’s about 4:30 a.m. Good Friday, April 1, 1994. Rushing around...
Aunt Cecilia is 100 Years Old Today!
A centenarian! That's what my Aunt Cecelia is today. Born March 28, 1915, Aunt Ceci is one-hundred years old. According to one source, only 7347 U. S. citizens are now 100 years old, and today my aunt has joined their ranks. Special things will happen to her today....
Grandmother Kayaks from Maine to Guatemala for the Children at the Dump
Grandmother Kayaks from Maine to Guatemala for the Children at the Dump These were the words in my invitation to a reception promoting Project Safe Passage honoring Dr. Deb Walters' efforts to raise funds via her Kayak trips. A stellar professional career behind her,...
Purple Passages with a Pop of Pink, March 2015 edition
SPRING “Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like? “It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine . . . ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden [in Just-] a poem by e. e. cummings, (his name usually shown in lower case...
The Nook: A Different Definition
Where did you study? Was your desk a dining room or kitchen table? The couch? A separate room? Did you listen to music as you studied? Or did you tune out the noise of the household when you crammed for a test or wrote a report? Louise DeSalvo author of The Art of...
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Pollee Ann and Mr. Zip
Did you ever have a Pollyanna? A secret pal back in the days when mail traveled only in paper envelopes with postage? As I was going through one of my Boxes under the Bed, I found this quaint gem sent to me at college in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, March 17. The...
Two Boys: One Moment in Time
Recently Grandpa Cliff and NaNa Marian took the Beaman boys to the Odditorium (not a misspelling!) of Ripley’s Believe It or Not in St. Augustine Florida. The Saturday excursion was billed as a Mystery Trip, so the boys didn’t know exactly where they were going, but...
The Potting Shed and Other Marvels
I just talked to my brother Mark in Pennsylvania, and our 15-minute conversation was interspersed with his exclaiming . . . “It’s sleeting.” Then, a few minutes later, “It’s raining . . .” And finally, “It’s sleeting again!” It’s March and most people north of the...
Oh Happy Day!
I am sitting with my three friends, Gladys Graybill, Hazel Garber, and Millie Zimmerman near the pulpit in front of Bossler Mennonite Church to be baptized. At the prompting of our Bishop Clarence E. Lutz, we kneel, and as we kneel I hear the crinkle of the skirt of...
Moments of Discovery # 5: Mother’s Quilts
Bossler Mennonite Church was the hub of the Longenecker family's spiritual life and the school beside it, Washington School, the place where the Women's Sewing Circle fabricated comforters, baby clothing, blankets and quilts to help clothe the needy of the...
Wanda: Boring in Beige to Beautiful in Blue
Two "Beautiful" Stories today . . . Jenna's Story My auburn-haired granddaughter Jenna is very cute, and people frequently tell her how pretty she is. From an early age (here at 3 1/2), she has loved to primp and preen. Even before she turned two, she would wake up,...
Purple Passages with a Weather Forecast
To my friends both in the northern and southern hemisphere, some thoughts about the weather. All quotations from BrainyQuotes. Sometimes I wish I was the weather, you'd bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I'd be the talk of the day. -- John...
Signs and Wonders: Chincoteague Island
Once upon a time, there were five memoirists who met online through their writing websites. One of them, Janet Givens, who had a rustic log house on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, invited four blogging friends to join her for a writers’ retreat: Kathy Pooler, Joan...