Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives

By Wayne Muller

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.

Praise for Sabbath

“Muller's insights are applicable within a broad spectrum of faiths and will appeal to a wide range of readers.”—Publishers Weekly

“One of the best spiritual books of the year.”—Spirituality and Health

“Wayne Muller's call to remember the Sabbath is not only rich, wise and poetic, it may well be the only salvation for body and soul in a world gone crazy with busyness and stress.”—Joan Borysenko, author ofMinding the Body, Mending the Mind and A Woman's Book of Life

“This is a book that may save your life. Sabbath offers a surprising direction for healing to anyone who has ever glimpsed emptiness at the heart of a busy and productive life.”—Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9780804151252

Reviews for Sabbath

[nlaurent_12 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never fully understood the art of rest and the need for deep rest without self-denigration or lame excuses, until I read this book. I have earned wisdom from these pages. And when burnout seems unavoidable I remind myself of the need for dormancy in my life. One should not and cannot produce nonstop. Something beautiful occurs when you let the mind and body rest. When you stop working or fussing about things or shoes or appointments. When you put people ahead of schedules, projects or timelines and steal a nap, a card game, or a Sunday dinner, you get a piece of life that almost slipped away. And one is reminded that it is for those moments we do all we do. Otherwise the accomplishments loose their meaning in even the most prestigious and humanitarian of professions. Because what, for example, is the point of valuing and saving human life, if the quality of life is so low that they are here only to work? Regardles of whether you believe in one or more gods, it will remind you of the command to rest (or the right to rest!) and enjoy the life you were given. If you don't believe in a god, it will remnd you that you are a part of evolution and all the rhythms of nature, and that you cannot be exempt from the need or deep and renewing rest. There is wisdom here for everyone who is a part of our economy , our culture, our family and our legacy.

[bness2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book for today's world, and don't be misled by the title, it is not a sectarian view of the Sabbath, but rather a broadly inclusive view of Sabbath as a day of rest in multiple religious cultures, and a practice that even makes sense in a secular setting. This is a book for all who are too busy to slow down. It is a reminder that if you don't slow down you will eventually burn out and be forced to slow down. It's central message is that by taking Sabbath rest you will have a richer, fuller life and you will be much better able to function overall.

[jillkb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book really made me reflect on the importance of taking a day of rest, both spiritually and physically.

[jmcdbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rated: B-Worth the read. Helps me to realize that to "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Exodus 20:8) requires intentionality. The demands of our lives create our forgetfulness. A time and a way of resting from the world and toward our Creator is not only a commandment, but needed for the restoration and renewal of our soul."Henri Nouwen was a dear friend of mine, a brother, priest, and mentor. He was also a fiercely asture observer of our worried, overfilled lives. Henri insisted that the noise of our lives made us deaf, unable to hear when we are called, or from which direction. Henri said our lives have become absurd -- because in the word absurb we find the Latin word surdus, which means deaf. In our spiritual life we need to listen to the God who constantly speaks but whom we seldom hear in our hurried deafness.""On the other hand, Henri was found of reminding me that the word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which menas 'to listen'. Henri believed that a spiritual life was a pilgrimage from absurdity to obedience -- from deafness to listening.""In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is acquired.In pursuit of wisdom, every day something is dropped." (Lao Tzu)"Thomas Merton begins this oft-repeated prayer whith confession: 'My dear God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end'. In a similar was Suzuki Roshi exalts the virtue of what he calls 'beginner's mind,' a condition of being able to embrace and accept a certain level of inevitable unknowing. It is, he says, a fertile practice, because often it is when we do not know the outcome that all things become possible."