Everyday Sacred

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 became a quiet guide. Bender traces how ordinary domestic routines yield unexpected lessons in stillness.

The book records quiet moments across Berkeley, from a cleared studio table to a café where a barista paints smiling faces in morning foam. Local potters and teachers share how cracked ceramic vessels carry their own distinct grace.

In these reflections, the author examines how quiet patience uncovers meaning in things that appear broken. Everyday Sacred turns imperfect clay vessels into reminders to accept whatever life places in the bowl.

• Simple Living: Drawing insight from a Mayan gardener working with a single machete and a Japanese tea student observing the rituals of October tea, Bender explores how unhurried patience reveals unexpected richness in daily work.
• Mindfulness: A dedicated one-hour sorting habit applied to medicine cabinets and bookshelves demonstrates how focused, manageable tasks quiet a restless mind and bring order to domestic chaos.
• Daily Practices: Stories of broken tea bowls mended with silver lacquer and studio pots cracked deliberately illustrate how visible flaws and imperfections can complete a vessel rather than diminish it.
• Also by This Author: Plain and Simple and Plain and Simple Wisdom.

Sue Bender is the author of Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish (HarperSanFrancisco). The book was a New York Times bestseller. A fascination with Amish quilts led Sue to live with the Amish in their seemingly timeless world, a landscape of immense inner quiet. This privilege, rarely bestowed upon outsiders, taught her about simplicity and commitment and the contentment that comes from accepting who you are. In this inspiring book, Bender shares the lessons she learned while in the presence of the Amish people.

In Everyday Sacred: A Woman's Journey Home (HarperSanFrancisco: now in its sixth printing), Bender speaks to our longing to make each day truly count. She chronicles her struggle to bring the joyful wisdom and simplicity she experienced in her sojourn with the Amish back to her hectic, too-much-to-do days at home. Bender discovers for herself, and in the process shows us, that small miracles can be found everywhere'in our homes, in our daily activities and, hardest to see, in ourselves.

Profiles and interviews with Ms. Bender, as well as book excerpts have been published in countless national publications including Reader's Digest, The Washington Post, Ladies' Home Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Utne Reader, and W Magazine. She has also appeared as a guest on dozens of radio and television shows.

Born in New York City, Sue Bender received her BA from Simmons College and her MA from the Harvard University School of Education. She taught high school in New York and English at the Berlitz School in Switzerland. She later earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of California at Berkeley. During her active years as a family therapist, Bender was founder and Director of CHOICE: The Institute of the Middle Years. In addition to being an author and former therapist, Sue Bender is a ceramic artist and much sought after lecturer nationwide. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband Richard, and is the mother of two grown sons.