Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish by Sue Bender. A graceful story of a search for meaning, simplicity, and order. This book is the captivating and true story of a harried urban Californian moved by the beauty of a display of quilts to seek out and live with the Amish. Discovering lives shaped by unfamiliar yet comforting ideas about time, work, and community, Bender is gently coaxed to consider whether there is a better way to lead a good life. Her journey begins in a New York men's clothing store. There she is spellbound by the vibrant colors and stunning geometric simplicity of the Amish quilts used as background in a display. Heeding a persistent inner voice, Bender searches for Amish families willing to allow her to visit and share in their daily lives. 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 is made between the sacred and the everyday. In nine interrelated chapters - as simple as a classic nine-patch Amish Quilt - Bender shares the quiet power she found reflected in lives of joyful simplicity, humility, and clarity. When Bender returns home, she reworks her life, integrating the qualities she has observed in the Amish. This charming book speaks to the seeker in all of us. 152 pages. Softcover. 8" x 6". B&W.Everyday Sacred, A Woman's Journey Home, by Sue Bender is a sequel to Plain and Simple the book about her spiritual life visiting the Amish. "When I started the journey I was hoping to find a miracle," Bender writes, "one that would change my life. What I found was far more important: the extreme importance of small things". Every Day Sacred is filled with stories, the people, and the experiences that filled Bender's bowl--a "connect-the-dots" record of her search for the sacred in every day life. In the end, Bender discovers for herself--and shows us in the process--that "small miracles are there for us, all around. We can find them everywhere--in our homes, in our daily activities, and, hardest to see, in ourselves". A moving book. 166 soft cover pages. To order by phone call toll-free: 866-596-9982 FREE SHIPPING!