Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
When Sue Bender proudly announced to a friend that her first book, Plain and Simple had made it to the New York Times bestseller list, her friend immediately shot back, "But what number on the list are you?" Bender was shocked, realizing that nothing we accomplish seems like enough in our overly pressured world. In Everyday Sacred we follow Bender on her quest to make every moment enough. Cleaning a desk, sipping cappuccino, making computer connections, and appreciating freshly painted walls all become opportunities to satiate one's life with sacred encounters. The end product reads like an Amish quilt--simple vignettes sewn together to create a comfortable lifetime companion.
Book Description
With simple shifts of perception, each of us can find the sacred in every day. Like the vibrant yet simple quilts that led her to live within the Amish community and to write about the experience in her bestselling book Plain and Simple, the empty begging bowl is the powerful, inspirational symbol in Sue Bender's Everyday Sacred. In the tradition of the begging bowl, she discovers a simple, profound wisdom we can all live by. Just as a Zen monk goes out each morning with an empty bowl in his hands and accepts whatever is placed in the bowl that day as his nourishment, so can we start each day afresh and find, at the end of the day that extraordinary things have come our way.
Filled with the people, stories, and experiences that found their way into Bender's own bowl, Everyday Sacred teaches us that each step along life's journey is a miraculous opportunity to learn. Whatever we are doing-whether meditating, weeding a garden, serving coffee in a busy coffee bar, or listening to a friend can be done with our full attention and love. It is these small acts that make every day sacred.
"Reading Everyday Sacred, I felt as if I had spent an evening in lively conversation with Sue, searching for meaning through a variety of experiences, with myriad friends, and finding it at every turn" --Whitney Otto, author of How to Make an American Quilt
"It moved my whole being, seeped into my skin. Yes, I said, Yes. And the illustrations! ...They're wonderful." --Natalie Goldberg, author of Banana Rose
Sue Bender is an accomplished artist, author, and much sought-after lecturer worldwide.
Ingram
The author of Plain and Simple, which chronicled Bender's spiritual journey that took her far from home to live with the Amish, returns with a compelling book that tells readers how to discover how to find that which is "just enough" to fill our lives each day. Line drawings.
About the Author
Sue Bender is the author of Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish (HarperSanFrancisco). The book was a New York Times bestseller. A fascination with Amish quilts led Sue to live with the Amish in their seemingly timeless world, a landscape of immense inner quiet. This privilege, rarely bestowed upon outsiders, taught her about simplicity and commitment and the contentment that comes from accepting who you are. In this inspiring book, Bender shares the lessons she learned while in the presence of the Amish people.
In Everyday Sacred: A Woman's Journey Home (HarperSanFrancisco: now in its sixth printing), Bender speaks to our longing to make each day truly count. She chronicles her struggle to bring the joyful wisdom and simplicity she experienced in her sojourn with the Amish back to her hectic, too-much-to-do days at home. Bender discovers for herself, and in the process shows us, that small miracles can be found everywhere'in our homes, in our daily activities and, hardest to see, in ourselves.
Profiles and interviews with Ms. Bender, as well as book excerpts have been published in countless national publications including Reader's Digest, The Washington Post, Ladies' Home Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Utne Reader, and W Magazine. She has also appeared as a guest on dozens of radio and television shows.
Born in New York City, Sue Bender received her BA from Simmons College and her MA from the Harvard University School of Education. She taught high school in New York and English at the Berlitz School in Switzerland. She later earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of California at Berkeley. During her active years as a family therapist, Bender was founder and Director of CHOICE: The Institute of the Middle Years. In addition to being an author and former therapist, Sue Bender is a ceramic artist and much sought after lecturer nationwide. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband Richard, and is the mother of two grown sons. |
