Anita Yoder's Blog

The Daughters of Promise team asked me to contribute an article for each of their magazine issues this year. The themes they assigned were too beautiful and exciting for me to refuse to write about even though I didn’t actually need three new projects with deadlines. This blog post is the article I wrote for their Celebration issue.

When you reflect on the top five high points of your life, those memories may include at least two people with you, special food, and beauty in the form o...

Several years ago, I took six poetry workshops on Zoom with Danusha Laméris, a beautiful, gifted poet who lives in California.

Danusha was making a point that I’ve forgotten, but her story remains with me and I think of it almost every day. She told us that she had a young son who was hospitalized multiple times with a chromosome deficiency that no one could diagnose. He died before he became a teen. (I can’t remember all the details and I wish Danusha would find this blog post to correct...

The Daughters of Promise team asked me to contribute an article for each of their magazine issues this year. The themes they assigned were too beautiful and exciting for me to refuse to write about even though I didn’t actually need three new projects with deadlines. This blog post is the article I wrote for their Storyseekers and Storytellers issue.
The stories in this photo are some of my favorites. I’ve read all of them at least twice.

I was returning from a missionary conference whe...

My friend Mary Kauffman died two weeks ago on May 4. She was 90 and timeless, an elegant queen and a sparky friend. I saw her last at my church in July of last year. She and Lloyd were here for a Hope Singers event, and after lunch I tracked her down to give her a big hug. As I held her, I sensed her increasing frailty, and I knew she wouldn’t have many years left with us, but I never imagined that day would hold our last conversation.

The two of them took me into the auditorium to catch ...

One of my favorite memories of last year is the serendipitous breakfast I had with Lori in Pittsburgh. A group of us were gearing up for our second day at REACH and we needed coffee and the line was too long at the hotel. So we found a coffee shop around the corner from the venue and inside the door was Lori!

I crashed her solitary breakfast, joined by another friend who is unnamed because she’s currently in a closed country. We were three friends who are never ever together: Lori from ...

Yesterday was the last day of Winter Term, and as part of the wrap-up chapel I was one of four instructors who was asked to say something to the group. I wanted to give a reflection and benediction, and I suspect I went over my time allowance. Ugh, so sorry. Here are yesterday’s ideas in a slightly expanded form.

I love Winter Term! This marks the end of my eleventh Winter Term either as student or staff, and I still love it every year. I love many aspects of it. I love the snow and walki...

How does God host us? How does God’s woman host? I think about this often and I don’t have all the answers, but I’m sure that part of hospitality involves our own person and how we bring ourselves to the space we’re in. We can be should be hospitable outside our homes and welcome others into our presence in casual, brief interactions, such as with the shelf stocker in the grocery store or the hostess who seats us at a restaurant. People always deserve our respect and love, and presence...

For whatever reason, I don’t love liturgical experiences. I can be ok with liturgy in some contexts, but I usually find it too confining, too structured for my heart to feel at home in.

There. I said an uncool thing.

Even so, I love following the church calendar. Especially I love following the seasons of Advent and Lent. Western Christianity tends toward appearing glossy, smooth, smiley, and satisfied, and it tends to not account for or acknowledge the crazy hard, bewildering, unfair...

Last week I was walking in the snow with a friend and we were talking about the books we’ll read during Christmas break.

“Remind me of the title of the book you said everyone should read,” she said.

“Well, right now I have two books that I’m saying everyone should read,” I said. “Are you thinking of Relational Spirituality  or The Body Teaches the Soul?”

“No—there was one before those.”

I doubled over laughing.

I can’t help that I’m the enthusiast who is sure that of course everyo...

I wrote this poem some time ago, but it works now too, except for the line about summer! I took this snowy picture two days ago and the snow is still falling and it’s beautiful beyond words.

I could write a poem about stopping by the woods on a snowy evening, but
Someone much wiser and more profound than I has already written a poem beginning with
that line and
After I read that I feel that I can never write so sparse and rich so why should I try,
But I have words in me that Frost never d...