"Slow down. That is what my people think the world needs to do. The metaphors for slowness abound in the Amish community. Horses and buggies. The exquisite slow chant of Sunday morning hymn singing. The labored chugging of an old Maytag wringer washer. Homes free of microwave ovens, telephones, television, and radios," writes Louise Stoltzfus, a former member of the Amish community in Pennsylvania.

In this enlightening collection of essays, the author pays tribute to Amish values, which produce contentment in so many women. There are the simple pleasures of domesticity such as baking, quilting, and gardening. Stoltzfus emphasizes the sturdy importance of neighborliness symbolized by barnraisings. Here mutual aid is a way of "putting feet on your prayers." Although austere, the Amish enjoy laughter and lightness of being. These plain-spoken humble people also are great believers in the significance of small pleasantries — courtesy, generosity, kindness.

Stoltzfus does reveal some of the problems of life in ingrown, tightly woven societies. Some of the leaders are too authoritarian. Community rejection — shunning — can be driven by the need for power or personality differences. Traces of Wisdom vividly demonstrates both the sunny and the shadow sides of the Amish way.