REVIEWS

An architect’s spiritual book offers advice for 21st century lives

The Not So Big Life by: Sarah Susanka Random House, 2007 ISBN-10: 1400065313 ISBN-13: 978-1400065318 304 pages

A book about houses and emotions...

"Odd", I thought, when I first began Sarah Susanka’s The Not So Big Life. An architect writing a book about spirituality and self-help?

At first, I had a hard time getting into it. With various chores and kids and activities beckoning as usual, I was reluctant to commit to a book requiring thought and processing. But things began to jump out of the pages and caught my attention. Making life simpler, making time to do things for yourself…Hmmm, could this be for me?

I was intrigued as I moved along through the chapters. The topic actually made sense: how the two – architecture and our lives, seem to intersect. For instance, “Removing the clutter,” linked clutter in your home with clutter in your self. Remove the clutter in the house and watch your self open up. I personally have witnessed this with a friend. She immediately felt a difference after professional declutterer Ann James came in and ruthlessly assessed her house top to bottom, forcing my friend to free herself from items no longer used. It was distressing and scary for my friend, as all decluttering is. She ended up feeling lighter, more open to ridding herself of things that weigh her down, emotionally and spiritually.

The book investigates our need for things, the bigger-is-better idea, barely leaving us with time to take a breath before making the next call on our cell phone. The crazy schedules we live, overcommitted to life in general, leave us with nothing for ourselves except, maybe, a heart attack.

In The Not So Big Life, Susanka shows us that it is possible to slow down and find how rewarding this can be. She tries to teach us that the real joy is living not so big a life, but enjoying what we have in the moment, the small things that bring joy. Watching and playing with a child, gardening, reading a book without feeling like you should be folding laundry, those sorts of things, we easily overlook because we have made out life so out of control.

There are simple exercises throughout the book to teach us how to make small shifts in our day to open our minds as if we were opening the house windows for fresh air.

Just as we can tear down walls in a house to open up larger areas and have more space, the author describes the way to tear down internal walls in our psyches. She demonstrates how healing and moving past our fears opens up space in minds and hearts.

As this architect-writer details the value of making room for the joy of participating in the value of the moment, I am heeding her advice. I leave this essay to play with my kids.