Nourishment for the human spirit, using rest to return to delight

books:


	• Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives Wayne Muller Bantam, 2000 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sabbath

This is a fabulous book. It gave me new insight into why Sabbath (rest) time is so important. It fed me with information that motivated me to change a few things in my life. Wayne Muller is a wonderful author who is interesting and inspiring.

Sabbath

A wonderful expression of the meaning of Sabbath. It has very practical ways in every chapter of how to live out what one has read and learned. It made me re-think what I do with my Sundays, weekends, and daily life. A real blessing, a wonderful book, and a must read for busy and weary people.

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Nourishment for the human spirit, using rest to return to delight

This book arrived yesterday, and I stayed up late reading it last night and this morning. I could hardly put it down. Many of the thoughts hit me as so profound, that I had to pause to think before I could continue reading.

"In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest. All life requires a rhythm of rest." (p. 1) "When we live without listening to the timing of things -- when we live and work in twenty-four-hour shifts without rest -- we are on war time, mobilized for battle. Yes, we are strong and capable people, we can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: NO LIVING THING LIVES LIKE THIS." (p. 69)

The book highlights the benefits of rest for our spirit, our bodies, our relationships -- as well as gives reasons why people don't rest. We feel that more work is better, we are afraid of what we will hear in the silences if we pause, we think we have more to give if we toil on without rest (when the opposite is often true, that rest breaks leave us with more to contribute). The book is also full of simple stories of people who have found themselves after rest, and simple thought-provoking poems. Muller also devotes some thoughts to simple play; and yes, even adults should play.

This book left me thinking of all that being an adult professional can cost the human spirit. Some of my own happiest memories are of being a child, sprawled on the grass on a hot summer afternoon, and staring up at the white clouds against a blue sky and finding shapes in the clouds. When do we ever do this, as a modern society? Simply pause, and spend a day doing nothing but play and rest?

Muller gives us some strong reasons to pause, to resort our values, to treasure our relationships and our bodies and spirits, and to go out again with more to offer our world.

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If you're looking for a fresh perspective, you just found it.

I absolutely fell in love with this book during the first two chapters. The points he brought out were exceptional. He also made a habit of offering suggestions for Sabbath practices or traditions at the end of every chapter (lighting candles, taking a Sabbath bath, making love, etc). Muller really brought the meaning of the "Sabbath" to life, and expounded on the importance of rest, rejuvenation and enjoyment. As he brought out, all life operates in the same pattern - work and rest. Yet sometimes we as humans think that we should be exempt from the need to rest and restore not only our bodies, but our emotional state as well, and we're headed for burnout if we don't correct our perspective.
That said, the rest of the book was a basic repetition of the earlier principals and I think the book could have been shorter and gotten the same (very valid) point across. Since he did expound so much, it almost makes the book very one-sided and unbalanced. I would recommend picking this up from the library and reading at least the first several chapters. It very well may challenge your perspective on the Sabbath.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

In today's world, with its relentless emphasis on success and productivity, we have lost the necessary rhythm of life, the balance between work and rest. Constantly striving, we feel exhausted and deprived in the midst of great abundance. We long for time with friends and family, we long for a moment to ourselves.

Millennia ago, the tradition of Sabbath created an oasis of sacred time within a life of unceasing labor. Now, in a book that can heal our harried lives, Wayne Muller, author of the spiritual classic How, Then, Shall We Live?, shows us how to create a special time of rest, delight, and renewal--a refuge for our souls.

We need not even schedule an entire day each week. Sabbath time can be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk. With wonderful stories, poems, and suggestions for practice, Muller teaches us how we can use this time of sacred rest to refresh our bodies and minds, restore our creativity, and regain our birthright of inner happiness.

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