Almost Amish
One Woman's Quest for a Slower, Simpler, More Sustainable Life
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3.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Have you ever stopped to think, Maybe the Amish are on to something? Look around. We tweet while we drive, we talk while we text, and we surf the Internet until we fall asleep. We are essentially plugged in and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Rather than mastering technology, we have allowed technology to master us. We are an exhausted nation. No one has enough time, everyone feels stressed out, and our kids spend more hours staring at a screen each week than they do playing outside.
It's time to simplify our lives, make faith and family the focal point, and recapture the lost art of simple living. Building on the basic principles of Amish life, Nancy Sleeth shows readers how making conscious choices to limit (and in some cases eliminate) technology's hold on our lives and getting back to basics can help us lead calmer, more focused, less harried lives that result in stronger, deeper relationships with our families, friends, and God.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After years of consumption, Sleeth and her family decided to live more simply. From eliminating a car to gardening and line-drying laundry, her life began to resemble that of the Amish a greener, calmer existence. Sleeth (Go Green, Save Green), cofounder of the nonprofit Blessed Earth, offers ideas for a simplified lifestyle backed by biblical principles and Amish and Mennonite ideologies. In much the same vein as the Mennonite classic Living More with Less (Sleeth wrote an introduction for its anniversary edition), the book serves as a guide for a range of earth-friendly practices.The author idealizes days gone by, when children played outside and respected their elders. "Being behind the times can indeed have its advantages," she writes, as she warns about the use of cellphones, video games, and motorcycles. While Sleeth does not totally condemn progress, the book may not connect with younger audiences for whom technology is an indisputable fact of life. She is at her best when she sticks to the subject of sustainability, an important topic in a down economy.