Stretching Lessons: The Daring that Starts from Within [Paperback]

Sue Bender (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002

Written with all the clarity, honesty, and insight that made Plain and Simple a phenomenal New York Times bestseller, this final volume of the Plain and Simple trilogy is about taking risks to grow spiritually and how to "stretch" to grow beyond our self-imposed limitations.With her graceful storytelling and charming illustrations, Sue Bender looks inward to discover the spirit within each of us that whispers to be heard.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like the delicate finger exercises that help pianists achieve great sonatas, Stretching Lessons reads like a series of contemplative exercises that help readers achieve great wisdom. Writing with utter humility and humanity, Sue Bender shares the private (and sometimes painful) life lessons that have helped her stretch into a bigger person. We read of Bender as a sixth-grade girl who didn't get chosen for the accelerated progress class, and how her body helped her find a face-saving solution. Sometimes her confessions are downright comforting, particularly since this author of Plain and Simple and Everyday Sacred lets us know that she still struggles with creating too much struggle:

I am wiser.

And I am still struggling...

I'm sixty-six years old and I want to learn about ease.

Consider this an in-and-out book, one that can be opened to any page, where readers will find brief one-to-three-page essays about stretching into one's biggest self, biggest dream, biggest life. Although it's billed as a memoir, don't expect a tightly woven literary narrative. Even so, the airy format with plenty of white space manages to convey a strong sense of Bender's life and the common ground we all find in her experiences. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Bender, author of Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish, as well as Everyday Sacred, has written a new account of her continued efforts at spiritual growth. While this book is not so rooted in exceptional experiences as its two predecessors, Bender is undoubtedly a writer of charm and persuasion, and she pursues the theme of spiritual renewal (stretching) with sweet, calmly written anecdotes and insights. Recommended; likely to be popular where Bender's other books have found an audience, or where there is a strong audience for women's spirituality.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062516833
• ISBN-13: 978-0062516831
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #942,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sue Bender is the author of Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish. 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 that inspiring book, Bender shares the lessons she learned while in the presence of the Amish people.
In Everyday Sacred: A Woman's Journey Home, 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration Information, May 23, 2001

By 

Kyle Anne Roderick (Los Angeles, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stretching Lessons: The Daring that Starts from Within (Hardcover)

Sure, we all want to grow stronger and wiser, but we're all stressed out and often don't know where to begin. In "Stretching Lessons," Sue Bender offers charming and easy-to-practice methods and philosophies for growing spiritually, mentally and physically.

To begin with, the secret lies in giving up struggling and competing through life and chattering our negative internal monologues. Loosen up and stretch and start feeling each moment, and listen to the whispers of your inner voice, Bender suggests. Instead of living in that "no pain, no gain," cycle, Bender says we should just gently stretch our imaginations, our bodies and our possibilities. Keeping an open mind and an open heart can help you on your way; so can finding the lesson in everyday occurrences, no matter how apparently banal they may first seem. "Get to know your life," Bender seems to be telling us, "and then your life will stretch."

The author of the New York Times bestseller, "Plain and Simple," and "Everyday Sacred," Bender holds a master's degree in education from Harvard and a degree in clinical social work from UC Berkeley. She has worked as a high school teacher and psychotherapist, and has exhibited her pottery in museums around the United States. She is the mother of two grown sons.

Everyone is an artist in some medium, Bender believes, and everyone is spiritually gifted. People can benefit from realizing and honoring their artistic and spiritual potential. One of the most moving examples in "Stretching Lessons" involves a woman who tearfully confesses that she feels inadequate because she is surrounded by artist friends and yet she makes no art. All she does in her free time is feed the dogs of homeless people in her neighborhood since for many, dogs are their only source of love.

Deeply moved by this woman's nurturing; Mother Teresa-like actions, Bender announces, "But you are an artist," and with these reassurances, we, the readers, see how she who feeds the dogs of the homeless is indeed artfully helping sustain many lives, while stretching her own.

"Stretching Lessons" glows with dynamic encounters with author and physician Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., spiritual guru Ram Dass, psychotherapist Mitzi McCloskey, artist M.C. Richards and Bender's beloved yoga and stretching teacher, Nancy Minges, M.A., of Berkeley's Claremont Resort and Spa. This is the kind of book that everyone can benefit from: teenagers, women and men of all ages, and anyone who is intent on knowing their lives and growing with grace. You will feel stretched just by reading this book, and inspired to stretch more.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another touching book...., April 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Stretching Lessons: The Daring that Starts from Within (Hardcover)

As with her preceding work, this author succeeds at getting our attention on the, so often missed, power of the ordinary...We, seekers, are always looking "out there" for what is most often within us or immediately around us..if we pause long enough to notice...

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to savor and internalize, October 9, 2001

By 

atmj (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stretching Lessons: The Daring that Starts from Within (Hardcover)

After reading Everyday Sacred, I looked forward to this next book of Sue Benders. I was not dissappointed.

READ THIS BOOK SLOW AND THINK ABOUT WHAT SHE IS SAYING, HOW IT PARALLELS YOUR OWN LIFE
If you do get this book read it slow and think about what she is saying. This is an introspective book. One woman's journey to stretch in her own life.

SEVERAL MAIN THEMES
Sue Bender's concerns and issues with her own life will ring a chord with your own. Like Everyday Sacred this book is a wandering jewel of a book touching on several main themes:
The Daring that starts from within
Opening
Risking
Stretching
Growning wings

WE SET OUR OWN LIMITATIONS
This book if you think about each section will help you understand the limitations in your life you self impose and how to work around them and grow.

NO LESSONS JUST STORIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Does she give assignments and a cookbook approach? "No". Sue Bender relates her story so you can learn from it.

A thoroughly enjoyable journey.