Chapters: How it began - The ninepatch and the faceless dolls - The journey begins - Testing the dream - Coming home - Going back - Harvest time - Lessons - The emerging ninepatch.
Summary
"Plain and Simple vividly recounts sojourns with two Amish families, visits during which Bender enters a world without television, telephone, electric light, or refrigerators; a world where clutter and hurry are replaced with inner quiet and calm ritual; a world where a sunny kitchen 'glows' and 'no distinction was made between the sacred and the everyday.' In nine interrelated chapters--as simple and elegant as a classic nine-patch Amish quilt--Bender shares the quiet power she found reflected in lives of joyful simplicity, humanity, and clarity. The fast-paced, opinionated, often frazzled Bender returns home and reworks her 'crazy-quilt' life, integrating the soul-soothing qualities she has observed in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns formed by the distinctive 'patches' of her own life." [from the publisher]
Sheldon Bertz Sr. and wife, Bertha Sylvius Bertz, seated front and center, with their children, John Bertz, Paul Bertz, Sheldon Bertz, Perry Bertz, Richard Bertz, Mary Bertz, and George Bertz.
Three women and a man with hills in background. Left to right: Sara ?, Park Weaver, Libby ?, Elsie Rankin. At Bellefonte, Pa. Written on back: "Libby was my flame."
