Getting around can be a challenge in this day and age, given all the four-wheel vehicles on the road. This Penny Whistle bike is in a bike shop in Lansdale. PA. The age of motoring is scarcely more than a hundred years old. Cogitation 41/218 Saturday 12 October 2019 From Boston to Rockport, (MA), to …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
On the road, week 1
Butterfly garden in State College, Pennsylvania. Cogitation 40/217 Saturday 5 October 2019 Travel is fun, even when heavy traffic, road construction, adverse weather conditions, and weariness enter the picture. One is grateful for new vistas, safe arrivals, and precious interactions with people. Just like the cream that rose in the bottles of milk from my …
There’s a new day dawning in US politics
We were glad to be part of a surprise birthday party for a great-niece, Melissa. I remember 30 awe-fully well. Cogitation 39.216 Saturday 28 September 2019 There's a new day dawning in the USA where the two main political parties will again be on course to serve the common good. Such is the conclusion I …
A lesson in teamwork atop a high tower
How simple and profound . . . making space in a sandbox to build the community now and for the future. It's part of the fabulous Children's Garden at the Wellfield Botanic Gardens, Elkhart. I can almost recall the sense of joy I had when my parents built a sandbox--and when they took us siblings …
What makes me happy
The squirrels in our yard have a taste for salad, specifically the petals of the Gerbera daisy. The Gerberas are into their third blooming, even as the squirrels are soon to be busy with burying acorns. Happy for that. Cogitation 37/214 Saturday 14 September 2019 There's more than the benefit of exercise that makes me …
Keeping fast with friends
Nod to September Cogitation 36/213 Saturday 7 September 2019 Thankfully, relationships with close friends do not always go smoothly or last without cultivation. What? Thankfully? Friends keep one honest, on track, resilient. In touch with our humanity. Through a friend we can face our vulnerabilities, be there, learn to listen, pay heed, laugh, weep, be …
Notes of thanks
From a walk on the Greencroft Goshen campus.From a walk through the Goshen College campus. Sandhill cranes on Perrin lake, Michigan. Spotted from a boat ride at the home of John and Jan Schwartz a week ago. Cogitation 35/212 Saturday 31 August 2019 Three notes of thanks surface this week. One. Celebration with friends We …
Power
Rain and wind swept across Oliver Lake Sunday evening a week ago, seen from Mary and Gerald's cottage. Cogitation 34/211 Saturday 24 August 2019 Last weekend the power of nature delighted me with deep thundering chords and stormy deluge. Within days parched grasses turned green again. One of the green areas on the Greencroft Goshen …
Treasured taste of a Danish . . . cucumber salad
The cherry tomato plants in a container at our front door are bearing fruit . . . and wonder, occasioning gratitude. Cogitation 33/210 Saturday 17 August 2019 My bedtime reading this week included a couple cookbooks--a respite from history, mystery, biography, travel, and climate. One of the books is a small 78-page volume, Danish Cookery …
Continue reading Treasured taste of a Danish . . . cucumber salad
Why did we move here?
On Tuesday evening we saw this hawk flying low over the Greencroft Goshen campus. Rodents beware. Cogitation 32/210 Saturday 10 August 2019 Last November we sold our home and moved to Greencroft Goshen, a continuing care retirement community. The physical distance from Elkhart to Goshen is short (12 miles); the psychical measure is less precise, …
It's About Now 