This essay, written in 1987, by Frances Irene Taber, explores the spiritual basis of Friends' testimony of simplicity: how it evolved from the efforts of early Friends to live in a way that fostered the spiritual richness of their lives, and how it continues to speak today in the lives of those who seek to find not merely "balance," but an unseamed wholeness of their inward and outward journeys. As environmental, economic, and technological events in our times push us with accelerating speed towards fragmentation of ourselves, our lives, and our communities, the "taproot" of simplicity continues to offer us wisdom for building lives of harmony and integrity. Discussion questions included.

Originally published in 1987 as a chapter in Friends Face the World, this essay explores the spiritual basis of Friends’ testimony of simplicity: how it evolved from the efforts of early Friends to live in a way that fostered the spiritual richness of their lives, and how it continues to speak today in the lives of those who seek to find not merely “balance,” but an unseamed wholeness of their inward and outward journeys. As environmental, economic, and technological events in our times push us with accelerating speed towards fragmentation of ourselves, our lives, and our communities, the “taproot” of simplicity continues to offer us wisdom for building lives of harmony and integrity.

Clear exposition by one of the most respected spokespersons of Conservative Quakerism of her generation. ( )

This is a lovely wise pamphlet on the relationship between spiritual life and outward life. Simplicity is the result of our faithfulness, based on the realization that for the inward life to continue to grow, the outward life must respond to it, and that spiritual knowledge comes from an open relationship between the two.
She quotes Quakers from the 17th to the 20th centuries who wrote of their experience of the mutuality of spiritual growth and simple living. She also cites the extension of concern to the entire environment in our contemporary understanding of the implications of simplicity. ( )

Keeping the root of understanding clear and the doing that follows true, through the stripping away of superfluities. A re-publishing of a deeply insightful expression of the core reason for simplicity, from a leading representative of the Conservative Friends' tradition. ( )