The Practice of Saying No: A HarperOne Select
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About this ebook
In The Practice of Saying No, beloved author and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on the meaning of keeping the Sabbath: of saying no to work and doing, but instead celebrating stopping, resting on the porch, and taking the time to recognize our interconnectedness. The Practice of Saying No will appeal to anyone seeking more meaning and spirituality in their everyday lives. Barbara Brown Taylor, acclaimed author of Leaving Church and An Altar in the World (from which this eSelect is taken), writes with the honesty of Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and the spiritual depth of Anne Lamott (Grace, Eventually) and reveals how to encounter the sacred as a natural part of everyday life.
Barbara Brown Taylor
Barbara Brown Taylor is the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller An Altar in the World and Leaving Church, which received an Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association. Taylor is the Butman Professor of Religion at Piedmont College, where she has taught since 1998. She lives on a working farm in rural northeast Georgia with her husband, Ed.
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Reviews for The Practice of Saying No
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The is a short essay addressing the value of observing a sabbath in our life. The author realistically talks about how difficult this will be in modern American society. It was a worthwhile read. The ideas are sound and practical.
Book preview
The Practice of Saying No - Barbara Brown Taylor
The Practice of Saying No
A HarperOne Select
Barbara Brown Taylor
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Title Page
The Practice of Saying No
About the Author
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The Practice of Saying No
God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by subtracting.
—Meister Eckhart
A few years ago the bestseller list included a book on leadership called Getting to Yes. I think it was about moving from win-lose situations to win-win situations in which everyone involved had an easier time getting to yes.
The title appealed to me enough to buy the book, although I never read it. Getting to Yes was such a positive concept that even seeing it on my bookshelf cheered me up. Yes is one of those words capable of changing a life through the utterance of a single syllable.
Yes, I want the job.
Yes, I will marry you.
Yes, it is my desire to be baptized.
At least part of the pleasure of saying yes is knowing that someone wants you—wants to be with you, wants you to do something that you do well, wants to do it with you. Saying yes is how you enter into relationship. It is how you walk through the door into a new room. It is how you create the future.
This may account for the seductiveness of the word, especially in a can do
culture where the ability to do many things at high speed is not only an adaptive trait but also the mark of a successful human being. As much as most of us complain about having too much to do, we harbor some pride that we are in such demand. We admire people who are able to keep more balls in the air than we are, and when they drop one we instinctively avert our eyes. We feel their pain.
Meanwhile, technology opens up more opportunities