's Best of 2001
Catherine Whitmire's book of contemporary and historic Quaker voices reads like an antidote to consumer-driven despair. We all know the spiritual downfall of compulsively acquiring material goods (or what Quakers refer to as "cumber"); how it leads to a frantic-paced lifestyle built around working long hours so we can buy more stuff. In assembling Plain Living, a collection of paragraph-long quotes, Whitmire offers readers a simple and soothing alternative--the path that Quakers call "plain living." "We have chosen lives that crowd our appointment books, fill our email boxes, and overload our answering machines, even as we long for a plainer way of living--one that will free us from the strain and activity of these times," writes Whitmire. "The Spirit is speaking through the whirlwind of modern life, and if we listen quietly to the cool, calm Center within, there is an invitation to plain living awaiting us."

In the early chapters readers will find inspiration for laying down their interior and exterior cumber. The book's wisdom eventually expands into other important Quaker values, such as "Parenting and Mentoring," "Practicing Non-Violence," and "Listening to the Earth." Ultimately, this is a book with a long shelf life, offering timeless quotations on living the life worth living. --Gail Hudson


Book Description
Most of us living in this complex and time-pressured era have moments when we wish we were living simpler, more meaningful lives. Sometimes these wishes are fleeting desires, but for many today the search for a life of greater simplicity and meaning has developed into a deep longing. There are many routes to simplicity. This book focuses on and provides direction to the gimmick-free spiritual path followed by Quakers. For over three centuries Quakers have been living out of a spiritual center in a way of life they call "plain living." Their accumulated experiences and distilled wisdom have much to offer anyone seeking greater simplicity today. Plain Living is not about sacrifice. It's about choosing the life you really want, a form of inward simplicity that leads us to listen for the "still, small voice" of God. This book goes beyond the merely trendy to make the by now well-worn Quaker path to plain living accessible to everyone.


About the Author
Whitmire served as the executive director of a health care agency in the late 1970's where she helped diverse groups work together to address issues of teenage pregnancy and motherhood. In 1987, she received a Master's of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. After graduation, Whitmire became a Protestant chaplain and a pastoral counselor on a psychiatric unit of an inner- city hospital in Boston. Whitmire attended the Shalem Institute's program in spiritual direction in 1997 and is currently writing and providing spiritual direction and workshops in Boston and Portland, Maine. The mother of a grown son, she lives with her husband, Tom Ewell, in an old farmhouse in Maine.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Most of us living in this complex and time-pressured era have moments when we wish we were living simpler, more meaningful lives. Sometimes these wishes are fleeting desires, but for many today the search for a life of greater simplicity and meaning has developed into a deep longing. There are many routes to simplicity. This book focuses on and provides direction to the gimmick-free spiritual path followed by Quakers. For over three centuries Quakers have been living out of a spiritual center in a way of life they call "plain living." Their accumulated experiences and distilled wisdom have much to offer anyone seeking greater simplicity today. Plain Living is not about sacrifice. It's about choosing the life you really want, a form of inward simplicity that leads us to listen for the "still, small voice" of God. This book goes beyond the merely trendy to make the by now well-worn Quaker path to plain living accessible to everyone.