Amish story of repairing the World

Ok - It has been two years, I see, since my last blog post. I am going to try to keep this a little more up to date with different kinds of thoughts. If I have a New Years resolution, which I generally never make, it will be to post regularly here.

I have spent a good part of the last two years meeting and getting to know Amish furniture makers nearby to my shop in Ohio. I have had many designs of mine and others produced in Amish factories. Today, to get the blog rolling again, I want to relay a story I heard yesterday that I hope will touch you as it did me.

 I met with an Amish business owner yesterday. He apologized for not getting back to me sooner on a business matter that I had discussed with him late last week. But he said he had been a little bit distracted by some of life's more important issues. He had just attended a funeral of a 33 year old mother of 6 children. She complained of a headache last Wednesday and died two days later. No one is sure what the cause was. It is a tragedy to leave behind a 4 month old, 2 and 4 year olds and three early or pre-teens.  Her whole family loves animals and her husband had mentioned a "dream barn" to this business owner. So the business owner made a decision. He pulled off a fundraiser of $50,000 in 48 hours and intends to have the "dream barn" built as an addition to his neighbor's existing barn within the next 30 days. In Judaism, the first 30 days after someone's passing are called sheloshim. They are recognized as a holy and private special time period of mourning. This is an amazing Amish turn of the same intense mourning period's treatment. However sad this woman's passing leaves you, there is an abundance of potential good in the World. Much of it is in Holmes County, Ohio.