July 13, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Amish Country

the quiet beauty of Amish Country

I belong to a group of women who all used to work together. We are all very different but we had the bond of working together. We call ourselves the Fabulous Wenches. We go out to dinner once a month and then we go on road trips and attractions here in town. Whoever is available goes. It really is good fun. We live in the west suburbs of Cleveland and the Ohio Amish country is quite a bit south of the city.

The Amish people live quiet, spiritual lives. Non-Amish people are referred to in Amish communities as English. The Amish live without electricity and cars and phones. So candles are necessary and no one heats up a Lean Cuisine for dinner. I have worked with the Amish, Quakers and Mennonites while I was a nurse and when I worked for the American Red Cross.

These wonderful people embrace a sense of “divine ordinariness.” This is a delicate balance of the outward and the inward. They also exude a wholeness of simple things in their lives.

They build some of the nicest, strongest furniture in the world. They farm and sell their produce and they make candles, quilts and cheese. This is some of the best cheese in the world.

The Amish spin wool and use a loom to make clothes and rugs

“Art is the communication of a state of mind.” —Kant
Plato suggests that a work of art exists in its own right, not images of beauty, but realities.

Amish in horse-drawn buggy.

An Amish horse pulling a closed carriage.

“Give Thy blessing we pray Thee, to our daily work. that we may do it in faith, and heartily.”
–Thomas Arnold

“Things must be right in themselves, and good for use.”
—Eric Gill

Amish wagon and buggy

We saw one very interesting thing while we were in Amish Country: a building where the Amish had built a staircase up to the roof and they went up and down as they felt so inclined. Not only the people, but their goats took advantage of the staircase to the roof. The goats walked around on the roof and some lay down in the sun.

The goats on the roof

“We are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live his life for himself alone.”
—Albert Schweitzer

Buggy ride in Amish dress

More goat experience

“Caring is the greatest thing, caring matters most.”
—Last words of Freiderich Von Hugel

Feeding the horses

Enclosed carriage and horse

Berllin, Ohio and the surrounding areas are full of quaint buildings.

Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit.” —-George Fox

So I count the day a terrific experience and if any of you live near the Amish, Mennonites, Pennsylvania Dutch,or Quakers take a day trip. It is well worth your time and gasoline. Plan on bringing home baked goods, cheeses and bacon. We took a cooler and it worked perfectly for us. If you ever have the opportunity to visit such a community, take advantage of the chance at a wonderful day.

October 11, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Through Life’s Experiences

” A person who has gone through all experiences and has held his spirit high, not allowing it to be stained, such a person may be said to be pure-minded. The person who could be called pure because he had no knowledge of either good or evil would in reality be merely a simpleton. To go through all that takes away the original purity and yet to rise above everything that seeks to overwhelm it and drag it down, that is spirituality; the light of the spirit held high and burning clear and pure.”

—-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Water garden. Cleveland Botanical Gardens; Photo by Barbara Mattio

God and man are not two; a spiritual person does not consider God separate from him/herself. God is not in heaven alone; The Beloved is everywhere. We see God in the unseen and in the seen; the spiritual person recognizes The Divine within and without. So, in reality there is no name which is not the name of God, and there is no form which is not the form of Divinity.

We need to recognize the imperfect and mortal aspect of our being as well as the perfect, the immortal aspect of our beings. The imperfect self covers the soul and confines it in a limited being, and calls itself “I”, a servant of God, and the calls The One, the Lord of the whole of existence.
–Excerpted from The Unity of Religious Ideals

In our daily lives, if we can grasp the truth that the all-knowing Divine is within us and everywhere we travel or have experiences then we will truly begin to experience the unlimited, infinite aspects of God. How you choose to work on this in your life is your choice. All paths can take you to the experience of the infinite , all encompassing experience of God in the Universe. Simply put, The Beloved is everywhere and within all sentient beings. Being God-conscious gives us the ability to see all people as children of the Universe. Not different, not hateful, not wrong; just other children of the Universe. The spiritual path shows us that God is in the seen and the unseen. There is no name which is not the name of God.

The Universe

“The Beloved is all in all; the lover only veils Him/Her; the Beloved is all that lives; the lover is a dead thing.”

—Rumi

May 18, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

The Mysticism of the Heart

There is a difference between religion and spirituality. Spirituality exists without a structure of dogma or fear.

To appreciate a painting you have to stand in the place of the artist. Assumptions can be made, but without entry to the artist’s heart, we can not completely understand what the artist intended.

Eastern poets and gurus or murshids, understand that ecstasy is being sensitive to the condition of the spirit of the universe. Something like placing one’s hand on the pulse of God. Thoughts that spring from a soul on fire, fill the soul with joy, love, and thrilling inspiration. The awakening; of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity in man, is our inheritance of the Divine immense perfection.

” When a glimpse of Our image is caught in man (or woman) when heaven and earth are sought in man,then what is there in the world that is not in man? If one only explores him, there is a lot in man.”

“I have loved in life and I have been loved. I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar, and have been raised above life’s joy and sorrow.

My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it. My heart has been rent and joined again; My heart had been broken and again made whole;

My heart has been wounded and healed again;

A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet. I went through hell and saw there love’s raging fire, and I entered heaven illuminated with the light of love.

I wept in love and made all weep with me;

I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men;

And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.

The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear;

With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved, I shook the throne of God in heaven.

I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love,

‘Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret.’ She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear,

My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover, and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.”

—- Hazrat Inayat Khan