Reading this book is like stopping to take a deep breath during the middle of a race. I've always loved the stillness, beauty, and age-old traditions of the Amish - people who live with wisdom and grace in an unhurried way while the rest of the world spins like crazy tops all around them. When I finished the book I felt like I would do well to go and live with the Amish for a year - work hard outside, make and eat good food, talk less, pray more, listen deeply, notice beauty, and have a stillness of soul that the rest of the world has given up on. (My friend Megan says that with all my Apple technology, they wouldn't let me in, but I accept that I would have to leave all that behind.)
There was a lot in the book I really liked, although something that significantly detracted from its wisdom and my enjoyment of it was the questions at the end of every chapter. I've come to really hate this tendency in modern-day Christian books - as though I don't have a brain enough to simply learn from reading the book itself, but I have to be dragged and guided to a place of new understanding and growth, like a child who has to do homework instead of learning for the sheer joy of it, or (gasp) learning something you didn't think they would learn. I felt that I was perfectly capable of being struck by a particular thought in the book, and I didn't have to be pushed and prodded to ask myself, "How dependent are you on modern conveniences?" or "Do you see dependence on others as a weakness or a strength?" What frustrated me most is that it was in direct contrast to what the purported purpose of the book itself was. I doubt that the Amish would like it. I imagine when reading they would stop and think about something that struck them, without having someone or something pointing, reaching, grabbing their arm to make them think along certain lines. And then there were these random Amish facts at the end of each chapter - small items about how the Amish live that generally had nothing to do with the chapter I'd just read. Made me feel as though there wasn't enough material for a 'good book', and so they packed in a little extra to please a modern world. Misses the point entirely.
In spite of that, there were some very moving quotes and comments I thought I'd share:
"A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to leave alone." -Amish Proverb
"Time might pass slowly on Amish farms, but it is filled with a promise about what is to come: small miracles in the course of a day, long miracles of passing generations."
"A task takes as long as it takes." -Amish proverb
"Drawing is in the eye, not in the hand." -Susie Lapp
"If you sense your faith is unraveling, go back to where you dropped the thread of obedience." -Amish proverb
"They had forgiven me, and they never, ever went back on that decision. And they backed it up with a real relationship. It was powerful." -Joel Kime (responsible for a car accident that caused the death of a young Amish woman)
"Blessed are they who have nothing to say, and who cannot be persuaded to say it." -Amish proverb
"When we fail to practice silence, God must go to great lengths to get our attention through all the noisiness of our own thoughts, the noisiness of our feelings, the noisiness of the world....There is no substitute for silence. No trick. No shortcut." -Ruby Zook
"Swallowing words before you say them is so much better than having to eat them afterward." -Amish proverb
"You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him." -Amish proverb
I did enjoy reading this book. It was an easy read, but a little tough to read all at one go - like trying to have dessert and dinner and coffee all at the same time. It's best enjoyed one little piece at a time, mulling it over, considering it, and going back to it once you've given it some thought. Otherwise it just becomes the next book to read, and tick off the list.
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