by MarianBeaman | Nov 8, 2023 | blog, book review, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
How do you listen to a podcast or Zoom interview? Sit and stare into space? Take a walk? Lounge on your couch? Chop vegetables for soup? Multi-task in some other way? Last month, Barbara Vitelli, also known as blogger Book Club Mom, interviewed me via Zoom. She was...
by MarianBeaman | Oct 4, 2023 | blog, book review, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Quotations, Uncategorized
Do you crave sleep? Do you have a hard time going to sleep? Or, staying asleep? Falling Asleep Sleep is a sweet respite from the daily pressures of life. I treasure what Walt Whitman called the “free flight into the wordless, / Away from books, away from...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 13, 2023 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
As a kid, I helped my aproned Grandma Longenecker pick strawberries in her garden close to Anchor Road. As a teen, I packaged bologna at Baum’s Bologna company near Elizabethtown, PA. During my sophomore year in college, I worked as script editor for WEMC, the station...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 30, 2023 | blog, book review, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
“If we’d open people up, we’d find landscapes.” ~ Agnès Varda I found this provocative line in a book I read recently (You Could Make This Place Beautiful by poet Maggie Smith, whose life has been rooted in Ohio). Seeing this line in her memoir, my mind...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 9, 2023 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, meditation, Memory, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Early in the morning on my birthday three Mondays ago, my friend Carolyn sang me the birthday song on my iPhone. I heard her warble the notes to “Happy Birthday to Yooooo” with heart and soul. As always, the notes struck a chord with me. We have exchanged the familiar...
by MarianBeaman | Jul 19, 2023 | meditation, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Neighborhood / Environment, Nostalgia, popular culture, Quotations, Tips, Uncategorized
Crista’s Cats Our daughter with husband and their daughter are visiting Florida State University in preparation for our grand-daughter’s first year of college. Gone for nearly three days, they have charged the grandparents—us—with the care of their cats, a menagerie...