{"title":"Sue Bender","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the simple wisdom and profound insights of Sue Bender's reflections on Amish life. Her books offer a unique perspective on slowing down and finding meaning in a fast-paced world.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"plain-and-simple-book-sue-bender-9780062501868","title":"Plain and Simple","description":"\"I had an obsession with the Amish. Plan and simple. Objectively it made no sense. I, who worked hard at being special, fell in love with a people who valued being ordinary.\" \u003cp\u003eSo begins Sue Bender's story, the captivating and inspiring true story of a harried urban Californian moved by the beauty of a display of quilts to seek out and live with the Amish. Discovering lives shaped by unfamiliar yet comforting ideas about time, work, and community, Bender is gently coaxed to consider, \"Is there another way to lead a good life\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHer journey begins in a New York men's clothing store. There she is spellbound by the vibrant colors and stunning geometric simplicity of the Amish quilts \"spoke directly to me,\" writes Bender. Somehow, \"they went straight to my heart.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHeeding a persistent inner voice, Bender searches for Amish families willing to allow her to visit and share in there daily lives. Plain and Simple vividly recounts sojourns with two Amish families, visits during which Bender enters a world without television, telephone, electric light, or refrigerators; a world where clutter and hurry are replaced with inner quiet and calm ritual; a world where a sunny kitchen \"glows\" and \"no distinction was made between the sacred and the everyday.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn nine interrelated chapters--as simple and elegant as a classic nine-patch Amish quilt--Bender shares the quiet power she found reflected in lives of joyful simplicity, humanity, and clarity. The fast-paced, opinionated, often frazzled Bender returns home and reworks her \"crazy-quilt\" life, integrating the soul-soothing qualities she has observed in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns in the Amish, and celebrating the patterns formed by the distinctive \"patches\" of her own life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCharmingly illustrated and refreshingly spare, Plain and Simple speaks to the seeker in each of us.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49537209467153,"sku":"GOR001616848","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49790684463377,"sku":"CIN0062501860G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343488094481,"sku":"CIN0062501860A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50933081178385,"sku":"CIN0062501860VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999064494353,"sku":"NIN9780062501868","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ LIKE_NEW \/ SBYB","offer_id":52391512408337,"sku":"CIN0062501860LN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52688665674001,"sku":"NLS9780062501868","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53005670744337,"sku":"GOR003111734","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062501860.jpg?v=1751437561"},{"product_id":"everyday-sacred-book-sue-bender-9780062512901","title":"Everyday Sacred","description":"Sue Bender takes the lessons she learns in her own life to weave a stunningly warmhearted story of our universal quest to live each day more fully.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eHer struggle is one keenly felt in today's intensely pressured and time-starved world: how can we experience our lives fully in whatever we are doing at the moment - whether cleaning the kitchen, faced with a situation that frustrates us, or momentarily exhilarated by some new fortune that's befallen us. Inspired by the image of the empty 'begging bowl' that Zen monks would start each day with to solicit enough food to nourish and sustain them, Bender discovers for herself - and shows us in the process - how to find that which is 'just enough' to fill our lives each day. The lessons along Bender's path of 'doubt and hope' reveal that each step is a place to learn and that 'we can seek the sacred everywhere - in our homes, in our daily activities, and hardest to see, in ourselves'.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49547672060177,"sku":"GOR003046698","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49563361935633,"sku":"GOR002068104","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49658460930321,"sku":"GOR004242080","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49728722632977,"sku":"CIN0062512900G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343212810513,"sku":"CIN0062512900A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999071244561,"sku":"NIN9780062512901","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415436230929,"sku":"CIN0062512900VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52404884013329,"sku":"NLS9780062512901","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062512900.jpg?v=1751226460"},{"product_id":"plain-and-simple-book-sue-bender-9780062500588","title":"Plain and Simple","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwenty years ago, while walking through a men's clothing store in\" Sag Harbor, New York, Sue Bender found herself drawn to an array of old Amish quilts that served as a background to a display of tweeds. She was immediately struck by their deep, saturated colors, the geometric simplicity of their design, and their quiet power. \"They spoke directly to me,\" she writes. \"They knew something.They went straight to my heart.\" That was the beginning of her \"journey of the spirit.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlain and Simple, illustrated with the author's own drawings, is the gentle, eloquent story of that journey. Bender, a wife, a mother, and a dedicated artist from Berkeley, California, sought out Amish families that would allow her-one of the outsiders the Amish call the \"English\"-- to visit and share in their daily fives.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn language as spare and vivid as Amish art, Bender recounts her venture into an entirely different world, the seemingly timeless world of the Amish, a landscape of immense inner quiet. With an inquiring eye, she describes the months she spent in Iowa and Ohio with two Amish families. She illuminates the everyday rhythms of their world and conveys the life of the people who taught her about simplicity, commitment, and the joy of doing what you do well.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn nine chapters, as interrelated and well-crafted as a classic nine-patch Amish quilt, Bender speaks to the seeker in us all and reveals how she was drawn to -- and changed by -- the Amish values of austerity, humility, and the ordinary. \"How\" they live reflects what they believe\" she writes. \"Their life is their art!\"After living and working with these people whose values were so unlike her own, Bender was able to return home and rework her \"crazy quilt\" life into a new pattern. \"I thought I was going to learn more about their quilts,\" she writes, \"but the quilts were only guides, leading me to what I really needed to learn, to answer a question I hadn't yet formed: \"Is there another way to lead a good life?\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49548292686097,"sku":"GOR002328361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49633637237009,"sku":"GOR011259689","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49659774664977,"sku":"CIN0062500589G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343494615313,"sku":"CIN0062500589A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51693774504209,"sku":"CIN0062500589VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062500589.jpg?v=1750693756"},{"product_id":"everyday-sacred-book-sue-bender-9780062512895","title":"Everyday Sacred","description":"With simple shifts of perception, each of us can find the sacred in every day. Like the vibrant yet simple quilts that led her to live within the Amish community and to write about the experience in her bestselling book Plain and Simple, the empty begging bowl is the powerful, inspirational symbol in Sue Bender's Everyday Sacred. In the tradition of the begging bowl, she discovers a simple, profound wisdom we can all live by. Just as a Zen monk goes out each morning with an empty bowl in his hands and accepts whatever is placed in the bowl that day as his nourishment, so can we start each day afresh and find, at the end of the day that extraordinary things have come our way. \u003cp\u003e Filled with the people, stories, and experiences that found their way into Bender's own bowl, Everyday Sacred teaches us that each step along life's journey is a miraculous opportunity to learn. Whatever we are doing-whether meditating, weeding a garden, serving coffee in a busy coffee bar, or listening to a friend can be done with our full attention and love. It is these small acts that make every day sacred. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Reading Everyday Sacred, I felt as if I had spent an evening in lively conversation with Sue, searching for meaning through a variety of experiences, with myriad friends, and finding it at every turn --Whitney Otto, author of How to Make an American Quilt \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e It moved my whole being, seeped into my skin. Yes, I said, Yes. And the illustrations  .They're wonderful. --Natalie Goldberg, author of Banana Rose \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Sue Bender is an accomplished artist, author, and much sought-after lecturer worldwide.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49583467954449,"sku":"GOR013411563","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49796110090513,"sku":"CIN0062512897G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50123457855761,"sku":"GOR005854125","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50343523385617,"sku":"CIN0062512897A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50761379447057,"sku":"CIN0062512897VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062512897.jpg?v=1751436507"},{"product_id":"stretching-lessons-pb-book-sue-bender-9780062516831","title":"Stretching Lessons Pb","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49724651634961,"sku":"CIN0062516833G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415441408273,"sku":"CIN0062516833VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062516833.jpg?v=1751100408"},{"product_id":"stretching-lessons-book-sue-bender-9780062516824","title":"Stretching Lessons","description":"\u003cp\u003eStretching Lessons, the final volume of Sue Bender's Plain and Simple trilogy, is written with all the clarity, honesty, and insight that made Plain and Simple a phenomenal New York Times bestseller. Stretching Lessons is a book about the risks we take to grow spiritually and the ways we can stretch ourselves to grow beyond our self-imposed limitations.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Plain and Simple Sue Bender shared the wisdom she learned living with the Amish. With Everyday Sacred she shared her stories about finding the sacred in everyday life and living peacefully and simply in our hectic world. Now, in Stretching Lessons, her journey grows even more intimate. With her graceful storytelling and charming illustrations, Sue looks inward to discover the spirit within each of us that whispers to be heard. By listening to the wisdom of the body, she follows the urgent call we all have to become as big in spirit as we truly are. Using the metaphor of stretching to overcome our doubts and the restricted visions of our own possibilities, this book -- her most profound work to date -- offers a new way for us to stretch to our fullest spiritual self.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSue Bender remains a pioneer on the path of the spirit, and Stretching Lessons offers some of her most rigorous and personal explorations. Through Sue's humble and honest grappling with her own frailties and struggles, we discover the larger life lessons that help us realize the potential that lies within us.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49867256398097,"sku":"CIN0062516825G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49890445558033,"sku":"GOR003036509","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50091895816465,"sku":"CIN0062516825VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50097611964689,"sku":"CIN0062516825A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52490777362705,"sku":"GOR007663511","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0062516825.jpg?v=1751194526"},{"product_id":"little-book-of-plain-and-simple-wisdom-book-sue-bender-9780062511744","title":"A Little Book of Plain and Simple Wisdom","description":"This volume captures the essence of the author's other work \"Plain and Simple\". 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