I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today’s guest, Elizabeth Scott. Liz is a psychologist in private practice in Portland, and she is the author of This Never Happened, a…
My perfect little grandson at birth Years ago, I published an essay about the anguish of our estrangement from a few of our adult children. I titled it My Big Happy Illusion, because one underlying issue in our particular estrangement story was my powerful illusion…
I am pleased to bring you the thinking of today’s guest, Dr. Joshua Coleman. Josh is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco area, with particular expertise in family dynamics,…
Dad on the left — Mom on the right On August 26, 1943 — the day after their wedding — my parents John and Clara Schmidt were at the Newton, Kansas train depot, on their way to South America. They were ‘called’ to serve as doctor and nurse for a new settlement of Russian…
My Father and I in 1970 Coming from people who are important to us, there are very few words that can wound us as deeply as, “I’m disappointed in you.” The words take me back to a rainy cold day in July 1970, in…
# 634 in the German Mennonite songbook in the photo above is Ach Mein Herr Jesu, Wenn Ich Dich Nicht Hätte. It was my father’s favorite hymn, and we sang it often as a family. When I hear it today, seventeen years after…