by MarianBeaman | Dec 23, 2015 | blog, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, Nostalgia, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized
“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers,” admits Blanche DuBois, an aging belle in Tennessee Williams’ classic play A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche has had the props knocked from under her and has nowhere to turn except to her sister Stella, also living...
by MarianBeaman | Dec 16, 2015 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
Mother’s house on Anchor Road has been sold. We sold it last fall, just a year ago. After more than seventy years, the Longeneckers do not own this house. But that doesn’t mean there are no memories or longings for home. The Welsh have a word for such a feeling,...
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 | Nov 25, 2015 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, meditation, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Are you a thankful person? Do you ever think about what your life would be like without certain blessings? Robert Emmons, touted as one of the world’s leading experts on the science of gratitude, says that “one effective way of stimulating gratitude” is to reflect on...
by MarianBeaman | Nov 18, 2015 | blog, Memory, Travel, Uncategorized
It’s true! St. Marys, Georgia is idyllic. Only a 40-minute drive north of Jacksonville, Florida . . . . . . historic St. Marys has a storybook setting on the St. Marys River – white picket fences, charming Victorian inns, and majestic magnolia trees and live...