by MarianBeaman | Feb 1, 2017 | blog, meditation, neighborhood, Quotations, Uncategorized
If you are reading this, you have arrived at my new website, marianbeaman.com – welcome! It is still a work in progress. Another introduction is in order: I have been dying for you to meet my new neighbors who live peacefully on the lake behind our patio. After...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 7, 2016 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Memory, neighborhood, Quotations, Travel, Ukraine, Uncategorized
My writer friend Janet Givens and I have both said Goodbye to houses this summer. She, to a vacation house on a canal in Chincoteague Island, Virginia, and me to our family homestead 12 miles from the beach in Jacksonville, Florida, geographically about 750 miles...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 17, 2016 | Coming of Age, Education, neighborhood, Tips, Uncategorized
“Mom, would you like to volunteer for Challenge Day at Mandarin Middle School in a few weeks?” Joel asked. “I probably would but I would need to know more about it,” I answered. Then my son proceeded to tell me about an initiative at the school he helps sponsor,...
by MarianBeaman | Jan 10, 2015 | Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, neighborhood, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
Every single memory of snow in my childhood is pleasant. Sparkling flakes in luminous free-fall as I look out the kitchen window. Snow festooning evergreen boughs. Then bundling up in snowsuits, knitted caps, mittens. Getting out the sleds. After more than one...
by MarianBeaman | Oct 29, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, neighborhood, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Ten years ago grandsons Patrick and Curtis were one-year-olds at Hallowe’en. In October 2004 they lived far away from us in Chicago. Fortunately, their parents captured snapshots of them in costume, Curtis a pumpkin and Patrick, Tigger, both in store-bought...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 26, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, neighborhood, Quotations, Tips, Uncategorized
Signs . . . they’re everywhere . . . billboards in the city, stickers on cars, comments on Facebook. I found some wise ones in a novelty shop, on a car, on a piece of paper, on a writer’s sweat shirt. Some you’ve seen before. Others, I hope, are new....
