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Moments of Discovery # 9: Keys to the Riddle

by MarianBeaman | Jan 13, 2016 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized

A Riddle I have no head, and a tail I lack, But oft have arms, and legs, and a back; I inhabit the palace, the tavern, the cot- ‘Tis a beggarly residence where I am not. If a monarch were present (I tell you no fable), I still should be placed at the head of the...

A Snow Bunny and a German Lullaby

by MarianBeaman | Dec 30, 2015 | blog, Christmas, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Travel, Uncategorized

On Christmas Day 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida, the temperature stood at 85, at least twenty degrees above the normal daytime thermometer reading for this time of year. Over most of the USA, Christmas day was warmer than usual, the forecasters predicting a near...

Friends from Faraway and Long Ago: Kitsa and Lydia

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...

Learning 101 with Ananda and Ben: Role Reversal

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...

Help! Vintage Photo Needs Caption

by MarianBeaman | Nov 14, 2015 | blog, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Travel, Uncategorized

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

by MarianBeaman | Nov 11, 2015 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized

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...
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