This is something the author; Barbara Brown Taylor, priest, best selling writer, and professor of religion, has heard more times than she cares to remember. She suggests we are clear about what we don't like about religion: the wars, the dogmas, creeds, but much less certain about the spirituality bit. Many of us do have a sense of something greater than ourselves, something mysterious, awesome, but alongside this there is a deep yearning, a searching, a longing for connection to this “more”. And indeed many church goers may also share this longing.  

“No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about spiritual life suggests is the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it”

All we need is our consent to be where we are, to imagine that we already have whatever we need. And in this book she sets out a series of practices to help us be just where we are. To get our feet down on the ground, and connect with who we are. Each of them is a practice in being fully human: that is where the spiritual treasure is to be found. 

“My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them”

Each of the 12 chapters helps us focus on one aspect of doing just that, such as the practice of paying attention, the practice of walking on the earth, the practice of encountering others, the practice of living with purpose, and one that is particularly relevant to many in the helping professions, the practice of saying no.

I enjoyed this book, I enjoyed its humour, her stories, the sense that she absolutely follows her own good advice that appears on these pages. She writes fluently, and her story telling is friendly and vivid, with her warm compassion flowing through it all, making the book a nice place to return to. I read it right through from start to finish: now I need to go back and read some chapters again. 

  It is designed as a workbook, to be dipped into and used in practice, and can be read in any order. Some chapters have stayed with me, such as the one where she extolls the virtues of cleaning the house and scrubbing the floors. I sort of know that this is a good idea, but I may need to read this chapter again….

Her chapter on prayer touched me deeply. She starts by describing her difficulties with conventional prayer and praying, despite all her efforts over the years, being a “failure” in the praying department. She wonders how we make sense of all those unanswered prayers. She then discovers Brother David Steindl-Rast who says prayer is:

“Waking up to the presence of God no matter where I am or what I am doing, when I am electrically aware of the tremendous gift of being alive; when am able to give myself wholly to the moment I am in, then I am in prayer. Prayer is happening and it is not necessarily something that I am doing. God is happening.”

This makes sense to me. As a psychotherapist I am aware of those moments of being wholly present, moments of meeting, where there is often a sense of something more happening and two human beings become fully present with each other. I hadn’t thought of it as prayer, but I do know that these are the moments I treasure, and that make me profoundly grateful that I am now doing this work.

Her final chapter is about blessings, and how we can all give these to ourselves and others. There are no rules saying who can or cannot give blessings and what they should be for. Sometimes it may be all that we can do, and the gift of blessing may be more than we realise. 

Happy reading!   There is a link to the independent network of bookshops here.