Daily Connector | Want you all back | Laurie Zimmerman

It’s 8:00 AM, July 9, the day I’m actually writing this and I’m re-remembering the dream I awakened to just after 4:00 this morning. In my dream I was walking around the outside of the storefront location of Columbus Mennonite Church. It was our second storefront since we’d left the…

Daily Connector | Hanging Out | Dan Halterman

I enjoyed first hammock time at my new home recently.  The house I’ve lived in for just over a year is still becoming, is not yet, “home.” Regular hammock time might shift my emotional balance more toward that.  My old Paraguay hammock is still sturdy enough and is a delightful…

Daily Connector | Kitty Heaven | Mary Yoder

I have greatly enjoyed reading The Connector this summer and want you to know how much I appreciate hearing about your lives.  Sometimes I read them to family members who stop by to visit with my mom, who is medically fragile. In early spring I didn’t read all of them,…

Daily Connector | What I think I knew | Phil Hart

Julie and I have been spending way more time walking in the park and sitting on the deck than we ever have.  And during those walks and sits I have been caught off guard by some things I have seen that I had assumed were not possible.  For example, after…

Daily Connector | COVID-19 Life | Tracey Lehman

Before COVID-19, I logged thousands of miles on the van, plowing through audio books, yelling at boys, and listening to NPR.  We went to therapists, doctors, schools, Taco Bell, and sports.  Then, it all came to a disorienting halt.  We were told to stay home.  The introverts couldn’t believe it—really? …

Daily Connector | Life-giving music | Karen Mareco

I often wake up in the morning with a fragment of a hymn going through my head.  Or in the middle of the day, an old hymn or something newer suddenly is there…going round and round.  Sometimes I end up having to go find it in the hymnal because I…

Daily Connector | Finding my roots – St Anne Cemetery | Larry Less

Genealogy is all about discovering and telling family stories.  I mentioned last week about “getting the genealogy bug” at my Aunt Beverly’s funeral in 2010.  We started taking trips to visit cemeteries to take photos and record headstone information that wasn’t readily available back then.  I started with St. Anne…

Daily Connector | Learning a New Art | Sarah Werner

One of the skills I’ve tried to hone this spring has been nature photography. I have loved taking photos of plants and animals for a long time, and it used to be a regular part of my job back when I worked in a plant ecology lab. On some of…

Daily Connector | Shared humanness | Roberta Gerlach

The brutal treatment and killing of the handcuffed George Floyd has set off protests and destructive riots in cities across the country.  Would not an understanding of our shared humanness have caused us to pause and take to heart the words in this poem. UNDER THE SKIN Mary Spain* Come,…