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Getting to the Other Side of the Pandemic
“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” ~ William Penn I’m certain I’m not the…
Read MoreIf You Promise You Won’t Tell
This week I took a break from work for an at-home writing retreat with the aim of finishing my manuscript, developing a book proposal, and writing a query letter for my new book If You Promise You Won’t Tell. I was able to accomplish these, and now I’m in the process of looking at publishers…
Read MoreChristmas Greetings from Our Home to Yours
I recently came upon a piece by Richard Rohr about the season of Advent that made me think. I especially like this part: Remember, when we speak of Advent or preparing for Christmas, we’re not just talking about waiting for the little baby Jesus to be born. That already happened 2,000 years ago. In fact,…
Read MoreReflections on Times Past and Present
A little while ago, I received a rare treat — a four-page handwritten letter. It came from Ruth, an elementary school pal. We first attended the same school when we were third graders, the first year an Amish school was built near us. She came from one local public school and I came from another.…
Read MoreSoul-Restoring Trip to the Northeast Kingdom and an Update on the Amish in Vermont
David and I had not left the state of Virginia since March when the pandemic became a stark reality for all of us. So a few months ago, we planned a trip to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We stayed in an Airbnb lodge on “Blackberry Hill” in West Glover, with two gracious hosts,…
Read MoreRainy Days
We’re having a rainy day here in the Shenandoah Valley. It’s an all-day soaker. A month ago we needed a rain like this when our lawns were turning brown in the drought we were having. We were praying for rain. Today things were already green, so we are not in need of it as much.…
Read MorePreface of “If You Promise You Won’t Tell”
Preface of the Memoir If You Promise You Won’t Tell There are frequently irreconcilable conflicts between loyalty to our parents and being true to ourselves. —Alice Miller If You Promise You Won’t Tell replaces my first memoir, Why I Left the Amish. This revision contains mostly new material of my childhood years, although the ending…
Read MoreCreativity During the Pandemic
At long last, I am back writing for this blog. As I start out, I don’t yet know where this post is going, except to catch up on the last four months since I posted here. Like everyone, the pandemic has changed my world. So many things I held dear, such as getting together with…
Read MoreTo Sacrifice or not to Sacrifice
In my last post, I wrote about the attitude in some Amish communities regarding the refusal to change their traditions in response to the current pandemic. A few days later, several friends brought to my attention the article that appeared in the New York Times about the Amish in Holmes County Ohio rising to the…
Read MoreWe’re All in this Together
How do we gain perspective on the sudden changes that have been thrust upon us in the past month by the pandemic? This is the question that I’ve been asking myself, and it’s been preventing me from writing in my journal or on this blog. But then I realized one day, that being “in it”…
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