Buy or borrow this book! Support your local independent bookseller
Find it in a WorldCat library
Compare prices at major online bookstores
|
|
|
Review by Anna Garris Goiser
Almost everyone can list off the top of their heads the downsides of the latter twentieth century American Dream: a rat race in which fast food meals are eaten with one hand while the other steers the car through traffic; a world in which children are hardly seen, much less heard by their working parents, and spend most of their waking hours in the care of others; the "good" job that demands much more than 40 hours a week and the survival skills of a shark to keep -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
No wonder many of us feel as though our lives were choreographed by a madman and we are overwhelmed by a helplessness that is augmented by loneliness, depression, and boredom.
The Circle of Simplicity by Cecile Andrews is a gift of order and serenity -- a practical guide to dropping out of the rat race, reassessing what is important, and creating a simpler, healthier, happier life. Drawing from diverse sources (Native American philosophy, Henry Thoreau, the Society of Friends, and Duane Elgin, author of the 1981 book, Voluntary Simplicity), Andrews first helps the reader identify everyday craziness to which many of us have become inured. Then she presents a step-by-step outline for analyzing the elements of one's life and establishing a harmonious and stable balance that includes realistic responsibility to one's self, one's family, one's community, and the planet.
Andrews believes that life changes are best made within the circle of support of like-minded people with similar goals, and offers the concept of simplicity circles -- groups of six to eight people who meet weekly to discuss the ongoing simplification of their lives, take time for reflection, and have an equal opportunity to speak and be heard. She provides a syllabus for conducting the first ten meetings of a simplicity circle to aid people in getting started on the road toward voluntary simplicity, as well as a thorough bibliography that serves as a reading list on the subject.
The study circles don't constitute yet another "meeting" in an already impossible schedule, nor are they "support groups." They are oases of gentle and intelligent learning and thinking from which we can draw the sustenance and energy to wrestle free from unhealthy and unnecessary entanglements and craft a sane and happy life, and The Circle of Simplicity is a sterling guide to creating a life that is "outwardly simple and inwardly rich."
Anna Garris Goiser is a freelance writer from Fairfax, Virginia.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.