Morning Sun on a White Piano [Hardcover]

Robin Meyers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1998

This is a book about learning to live in the moment, a simple set of instructions for recognizing the sacredness in everyday things.  On reading this book, Bill Moyers, the journalist and bestselling author, recognized these qualities and wrote, "Morning Sun on a White Piano challenges us to think again about how we spend our days, what truly matters."

There's a lot of talk these days about slowing down, simplifying, "seizing the day," but it isn't really happening.  We all talk the talk, but the walk we walk is getting faster and faster, and we seem to be enjoying it less and less.  Our problem is that, in searching for life, we pass it by.

Morning Sun on a White Piano is the perfect tonic for the freneticism of contemporary life.  In twelve lucid, straightforward essays, Dr. Robin R. Meyers offers a brilliant guide to achieving the simple and sacramental life--not by planning the perfect vacation or dreaming of the perfect job, but by paying attention to what is holy, right under our noses: books, music, letters, and children.  Morning Sun on a White Piano is about recovering the "lost arts of living."  It's about hearing again, in a culture that has gone deaf.  It's about seeing again, in a culture that's blinded.  It's about feeling again, in a world that overstimulates itself to the point of numbness.  If simplifying our lives means singing the song, Morning Sun on a White Piano challenges us to learn the dance--step-by-step.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The title Morning Sun on a White Piano conjures a treacly torrent of horrifying associations--pianists Ferrante and Teicher, generic greeting cards, the collected B-sides of Karen Carpenter--but it's actually a terrific book. Dr. Robin R. Meyers has put together an implicitly but thoroughly Christian guide to the sacramental pleasures of everyday activities such as cooking and pet ownership. Meyers writes in a lapidary, spare style that invites comparison with the best contemporary books on spirituality. Morning Sun on a White Piano is The Miracle of Mindfulness for middle-class Christians.

From Publishers Weekly

In the tumult of everyday life, simple pleasures are often forgotten or lost in the frantic race to keep up with the tasks we have set for ourselves. Meyers, a regular commentator for NPR and senior minister of the Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, meditates on ways to contemplate the holy moments or events we experience in our lives. Meyers touches on topics such as conversation, reading books, writing letters, parenting children and owning pets as he searches to locate the holy in life. From his reflections, Meyers concludes: "Simple pleasures are those moments when life is experienced rather than consumed, and moments are sacramental when the transcendent infuses the ordinary. But it doesn't arrive like a catered meal driven to the door... the best things in the world are freely GIVEN to those who have freely CHOSEN well." Meyers's short meditations are charming and eloquent explorations into the holiness of ordinary life.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (February 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385489544
• ISBN-13: 978-0385489546
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,255,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful presentation of the ordinary made extraordinary, January 5, 2001

By 

Sophia (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Morning Sun on a White Piano: Simple Pleasures and the Sacramental Life (Paperback)

In "Morning Sun on a White Piano", UCC minister and professor Dr. Robin Meyers presents twelve essays, geared to refocus his audience on the truly important things in life.

Although these revelations are not terribly new or extraordinary, what *is* extraordinary is their simple, beautiful presentation, the wide breadth of ideas he manages to express, and his ability to connect to his audience without being preachy, sanctimonious, or condescending. Especially noticeable is the "Not Wolf" story, and his essay on the importance of mercy.

This book is very refreshing and readable, the equivalent in book form of a five-minute shoulder massage, or a cup of tea on a rainy day. I recommend it highly.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple wisdom for real people, June 28, 2002

By 

Bron Mitchell "bronm" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morning Sun on a White Piano: Simple Pleasures and the Sacramental Life (Paperback)

It didn't take me long at all to read this small book of twelve vignettes on the simple pleasures of life. Although it is true that there's not a lot in here that you won't have heard before, I stand by the idea that the best books are the ones that remind you of what you already know. In places I found it a little cliché, especially the first couple of chapters which reiterated the old "turn off the TV, have more conversations, read more books" wisdom. But it improved as it went along, and it was the last four chapters - discussing mercy, faith, freedom, cooking, creating, the joy of anticipation and the art of hoping - which made me give this book five stars rather than four.

This is not one of those cheesy gift books that contain 50 half-pages of "bite-sized wisdom" and 70 generic photos of flowers, babies and rainbows. Nor is it a specifically Christian version of other books such as 'Life's Little Instruction Book'. It is simply a book of short, thoughtful essays which help us to stop and examine our values and our idea of what will really make us happy. I foresee myself reading this many times throughout my life.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for Christians anymore, but for All, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Morning Sun on a White Piano (Hardcover)

Reading "Morning Sun on a White Piano" made me not want to miss a single word, so I read it twice. Dr. Robin R. Meyers writing style leaves something for everyone. He clearly paints the world around us and points inside for the answers. Amazon says, "Morning Sun on a White Piano is The Miracle of Mindfulness for middle-class Christians." I have read both books and even Buddhists could come away with something of importance here. What this book does apply differently than Thich Nhat Hanh's book, is it explores our changing American culture, from yesterday, today, and the future. This is certainly not a book that is to be put back on the shelf. Pass it along, give it to someone. Just don't let it sit around with the other spines sticking out. You don't have to be Christian to enjoy this book you just have to be a sentient being.