by MarianBeaman | Dec 9, 2015 | Award, blog, Conflict, Education, Mennonite History, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
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...
by MarianBeaman | Dec 2, 2015 | blog, Conflict, Education, meditation, Mennonite History, Reflection, Uncategorized
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...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 9, 2015 | blog, Conflict, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
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...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 26, 2015 | blog, book review, Coming of Age, Conflict, Education, Literature, Recipes, Uncategorized
I bought this portable meal, a Lunchables, to give to a homeless person. So why is it still sitting in my refrigerator? Last week I planned to give this lunch to the next person I saw holding a “Hungry & Homeless – Will you Help?” sign as I waited in my car for...
by MarianBeaman | Jul 29, 2015 | blog, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Travel, Uncategorized
I knew we were in trouble when the rotary path took us around Buckingham Palace and not directly to the Comfort Inn, Hyde Park, where we were aiming to roost for our stay. Never mind that the steering wheel on our dark blue Vauxhall was set to the right, opposite the...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 17, 2015 | Amish, Amish fiction, blog, book review, Conflict, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
Cool Amish guys have replaced the dreamy looking girl with a huge covering and plain dress popular on the cover of some Amish romance novels. The images have done a flip. Now the young Amish-man with suspenders and broadfall pants and straw hat takes center stage....