What makes a "good life" in today’s fast-paced, competitive world? In this book, beloved author and spiritual guide Robert Benson turns to the wisdom of Benedict, a 6th century monk. Compassionate and practical, Benedict created a rule of life—balancing prayer, rest, community, and work—that has helped centuries of people to lead more fulfilling lives. With trademark humor and elegant prose, Benson shares his own struggle to balance a spiritual life with the demanding roles of father, husband and writer. Anyone who feels pulled in too many directions will find in A Good Life thoughtful, ancient wisdom for creating a life of deep meaning and joy.
I come from a family of writers and publishers and other folks who spent much of their lives working with and around writers and musicians and producers and artists. One of my grandfathers was a poet and a publisher and my father was a writer and a speaker. My grandmother loved poetry and novels and used to invite me to her house to play Scrabble. Words and sentences and stories have mattered most to me for most all my life
I grew up in a small bedroom community just outside Nashville, Tennessee. I left once to study English literature in California and again for a couple of years and a couple of cold winters to write advertising in Chicago, but all in all, Tennessee is home to me. While I was in Chicago I published my first book, Private Visions in Public Places, a coffee table book with someone else's photographs of the city. I got off the escalator one day in Water Tower Place and saw a bookstore window with a big display of the book. I have never recovered.
In between California and Chicago, I spent almost ten years heading up the marketing team for The Benson Company in Nashville, the major religious music firm that bore the family name. There followed several years as a freelance writer and editor, and two years on the staff of Upper Room Books. I graduated from The Academy for Spiritual Formation, a two-year program of study and prayer in community with some sixty people from across the South and also became a member of The Friends of Silence & of the Poor, an international prayer community.
Somewhere in there, I began to find my own voice. I had always written ' journals, bad adolescent poetry, advertising, even ghostwriting a couple of books. I even made a living at it. One day I discovered that I could no longer write for hire, because I could not get my own voice out of my head and it was time to begin to write my own stories.
I write two kinds of books about one thing ' paying attention.
I write about paying attention for the things that can point us to the Sacred in our lives. About the longings that we have for home and community and a sense of belonging in our lives. About practice and ritual and work and contemplation and the way that such things can be constant reminders of who we are and who we are to become.
One kind of book that I writes is overtly religious. They are books that are written for readers who are interested in discussing such things in the traditional language that the Church uses ' the language of spirituality and prayer and liturgy, the language of religion.
The second kind of book is less overtly religious. They are written to try and discover the holy, if you will, that is to be found in the ordinary. They are written about more general subjects, everything from baseball to gardening to travel
So now there is a body of work that has been published to favorable reviews from The New York Times, USA Today, and other major newspapers, critical acclaim from the publishing community as evidenced by the reviews in Publishers' Weekly, BookPage, and other reviewers, and notable comments from other writers in the field of spirituality. All of which is pretty surprising to me.
I have somehow managed to stumble into living almost exactly the kind of life to which I have been drawn since I was old enough to wonder about what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I live in Nashville still where I write every day in a small studio in our back garden, see my children and their friends every time I get a chance, and take seriously the call to participate in the prayer that sanctifies the day and the work of the world. I am married to the literary agent Sara Fortenberry, for whom I am gratefully yard man, travel companion and head librarian. And I get to say yes a few times a year to opportunities to lead seminars and retreats on prayer, silence, writing, and spirituality, subjects I have led dozens of retreats on around the country in recent years.
