As Far As We Are

We have a lot more time to read at the present time, and are taking advantage of it.  We will post our thoughts about some of the books we’ve been reading, and would love it if you would recommend other good reads for our journey.

Better Off by Eric Brende

Better Off is about a couple that decide to forego electricity and modern technology for 18 months in a sort-of exploration of the simple life.  They end of living in an Amish-like community, washing clothes by hand, living without a refridgerator, growing pumpkins as a cash-crop, and birthing their first-born son right in their bedroom. 

Jessie´s thoughts: 

Some of their insights were really interesting, like how daily work can actually just be a backdrop for many of the things we normally try to fit into our normal routine.  In our technology-filled lives, our time is often carefully divided out for different purposes.  For example, we get up, go to the gym to workout, then go to work  to make money, then go to the store to buy the things we need, and hopefully have the time to clean the house or clothes before spending some social time with friends.  In this Amish-like community, it seemed like all life was more inter-connected.  Cleaning, working, or just traveling from place to place provided not only exercise, but also community and social time, income, and daily needs like food.  Also, the author talks a lot about how he decided in the end that oftentimes technology does not actually make our lives more simple, like we often think, but that it actually leaves us more busy than before, managing the machines, and filling the additional time with more busy work.  For example, we could drive to the gym to spend 30 minutes on the treadmill, or we could just walk instead of driving everywhere.  I think both Josh and I were intrigued by many of the author´s insights, and although neither of us want to move to anything like an Amish-like community, we would like to look more closely into untechnologizing our lives a little (I say this as I write on our laptop we are carrying around the world.)

Here and Now, by Henri Nouwen

Jessie´s thoughts:

Here and Now reads kind of like having a conversation with Henri Nouwen himself.  It seems like he just has all these insightful things on his mind, and he´s got to get them on paper before he forgets.  I loved this short little book.  It seemed like almost every section I read was speaking directly to me and my personal experiences at the moment.  I especially appreciated the sections he writes on how difficult it is to live in the present, but that it is deeply necessary to learn how to do it, since that is where we can experience God.  I also really was caught by the section he writes about judgement, and how we spend so much time judging others, but that God tells us we should release ourselves from this, that we do not need to judge anyone.  And also that it does not matter how others judge us because God wants only love for us.  Oh yeah, and he also writes about how many of us often have this feeling that God must not really want us to be happy, that if we screw up, we most definitely are in for it, and we are afraid that God will let bad things happen to us.  But Nouwen says nothing could be farther from the truth, that we need to teach ourselves that God is love, and knows and wants to fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts, if only we open ourselves up to let it happen.  Sorry for the stream of consciousness style writing, but this book feels like it pours out of me.