Happy Autumn! Here's a collage of summer and fall highlights— my friend Arlene's wedding, a poetry reading in an off-the-grid farmhouse, and making balloon animals at the New Holland Fair. Bridesmaid Duty VI On July 29, a dear long-time friend, Arlene, got married! Her husband, Erny, celebrated the occasion by blowing the shofar horn he bought in Israel, the same horn he blew at a New Year Eve's party, at the start of 2020. I don't think he and Arlene had even met back then. Arlene … [Read more...] about Summer/Fall Collage
Community
Thrifty Shopping
The Lucky Dog might sound like a place where Blackbeard or Frodo would pop in for a bite of meat pie and a mug of ale, but instead it's New Holland's most cluttered thrift store— where the fine line between antique and junk is thinner than usual. My friend Melissa and I were out for a day of thrift store shopping, and Lucky Dog was our first stop. Decisions started as soon as we entered the thrift store from a side street— the double doors inside the entrance were plastered with numerous … [Read more...] about Thrifty Shopping
A Wrong Turn to Sunflowers
A week ago, I made a wrong turn and discovered thousands of sunflowers— golden fields on gentle rolling hills. I pulled off on the side of the road to stare at the beauty. I was less than ten miles from home, but I had never seen sunflowers grown on a large scale before. Most sunflowers grown in the United States are raised in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, not Pennsylvania. Later I went back to the sunflower fields with my sister and nieces to take more pictures. We parked at … [Read more...] about A Wrong Turn to Sunflowers
Co-Workers Go South
My company's branded fabric has a palm tree logo, but it's not often my co-workers and I get to see palm trees. One day last year Liz from the wholesale department slipped into my office and whispered, "Susan, I'm not telling everyone yet, but I've been seeing this guy from Florida." At 3 a.m. on a Thursday morning last month, nine of us started on a thousand-mile trip south so we could attend Liz and Tim's wedding. The wholesale van, normally used to haul bolts of fabric, had been … [Read more...] about Co-Workers Go South
Teaching ESL Classes in the Refugee Capital of America
"I like living here," Nur told me. "The people are so friendly!" Nur (all students' names are changed in this blogpost), was a middle-aged Afghan woman, with two of her sons, black-haired little boys, sitting next to her at the table. Several of her oldest children, Nur told us, were still back in Afghanistan, and Nur asked us to pray for them. Lancaster County has been called the "Refugee Capital of America" (see news articles here and here), and one of the many services available are … [Read more...] about Teaching ESL Classes in the Refugee Capital of America