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    The Practice of Saying No: A HarperOne Select
    The Practice of Saying No: A HarperOne Select
    The Practice of Saying No: A HarperOne Select
    Ebook31 pages28 minutes

    The Practice of Saying No: A HarperOne Select

    By Barbara Brown Taylor

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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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 7, 2012
    ISBN9780062123657
    The Practice of Saying No: A HarperOne Select
    Author

    Barbara Brown Taylor

    Barbara Brown Taylor is the author of numerous books which have been showered with awards. A priest in the Episcopal church, she is Professor of Religion at Piedmont College, Georgia.

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    • 5/5
      The 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

    HO_title_pg.eps

    Contents

    Cover

    Title Page

    The Practice of Saying No

    About the Author

    Also from HarperOne

    Also Available from HarperOne Selects

    Permissions

    About the Publisher

    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

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