My Father, bottom left … Susan’s Parents, back row Today I learned that the final close personal link to a significant man in my life has died. Susan Rhoades was the daughter of my father’s oldest brother, Dr. Herb Schmidt. My Uncle Herb orchestrated many pivotal…
Ed and I love to plan. We have already scheduled the trips we will take in 2020. We have a month-by-month set of specific timelines to finish the novel we’re writing. And we have detailed plans for each day: Morning salutations 8:00–8:30. Writing…
My last blog, inspired by my mother’s diaries and love letters, described the deep sorrow I feel about the inescapable passing of time, as well as the challenge this gives me to be fully present each day I am given. Her writings also have…
My parents arriving in Paraguay in 1943. Sometimes the aging of our bodies and minds, and the fading of our lives occur so gradually that we’re hardly aware of them. Occasionally, when the passage of time reveals itself in a compressed fashion, it hits us in…
I love the honest and vulnerable comments I sometimes receive in response to my blogs. Last week, in a response to my blog “Is a Good Marriage Good Enough?” Teresa McNutt Story stated: “This is a great article that really resonated with me. If you…
(That’s me as a teenager, sitting on one of my Father’s Land Rovers.) My last blog (Money and My Mennonite Father) described my father as a man obsessed with living frugally. When I was a kid, I thought we were very…