Bridging Two Worlds

When I was living in Pennsylvania, I met Ruth, who has become a dear friend. She is warm, loving, insightful, and brilliant. She is a wife, a mother of five, teacher of sign language, a grower of roses, builder of a “she-shack” (along with her mother) and an assembler of a vintage bubble Scotty mobile…

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Amish Customs: A Prejudice Against Pride

Last week Jim Potter wrote: “My question for you is about pride, specifically, Amish pride. I’ve heard that to the Amish, showing pride is a bad thing. Is that true?” In short, the answer is yes. The Amish make no distinction between taking satisfaction in an accomplishment and being haughty or arrogant. All pride is…

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Creating Art from Chaos

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. ~ Maya Angelou It’s been ever so long since I promised that I would offer my rug creations for sale on my website. Finally, I have created a new page called Saloma’s Amish Rugs,…

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When Creativity Takes a Sharp Turn

Today it is two months (even though it feels longer) since we had our furniture moved from the condo. David finished putting up the wallhangings today. He is almost done organizing his shop and putting up shelves. He’s done a lot of gardening, which is something he loves to do. He’s also been applying for…

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A Visit to the Petrified Forest National Park

There are so many aspects to the Petrified Forest National Park. I’ll provide photos for the various “stations” of our tour through the park in pretty much the order in which we saw them. The Painted Forest Overlooks: These were aptly described in Mem’s travel journals in my last post. Below is a reminder photo.…

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Trains and More Trains

Every time I saw a freight train during our trip to the Southwest, I thought of Datt. He loved trains. He seemed to have a nostalgia for them, likely from his days of working on the railroad when he was in his twenties. He had left the Amish to join the military when he was…

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A Cultural Heritage

Several blog posts ago, I mentioned our sons, Paul and Tim, which prompted these questions from Pamela: Question, you don’t mention your sons all that often and I assume its to protect their privacy, but I am wondering how they feel about your move? Also, while I am on the subject I have often wondered…

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Mem: Life Lessons I Learned from My Amish Mother, Part 2

Three years later, in February of 2014, I published my second book, Bonnet Strings: An Amish Woman’s Ties to Two Worlds. That summer I realized that even though I have written two books that recalled memories of my Amish childhood and I did not shy away from writing about the abuse I endured at the…

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