Product Description

Twenty-two lifelines to personal growth and fulfillment from the editor in chief of Essence magazine.

When Susan L. Taylor rose to editor in chief of Essence magazine more than a decade ago, she began writing an editorial column in which she shares her thoughts and feelings about how developing one's inner awareness ensures the wisdom and clarity needed to create a deeply satisfying and fulfilling life.

The monthly column called "In the Spirit" is one of the most popular in the magazine.

Susan L. Taylor connects with the reader in a personal and meaningful way, in a voice that is sisterly, informed, and motivating. She challenges her readers to transcend their fears, to face inevitable challenges in their lives courageously, and to use change as an opportunity to grow. "We limit ourselves because change may well mean dealing with the disapproval of the very people we rely on for support. Often words of inspiration and motivation, but she also suggests specific methods for working through problems and improving our emotional and spiritual health.

"We are not powerless spectators of life. We are co-creators with God, and all around is are the gifts, the clay, that we can use to shape our world," she says.

Susan L. Taylor writes passionately about what she has seen and learned in the course of her travels throughout the United States, Caribbean, and Africa. Her essays have helped many to balance the demanding world of work and business with the personal world of family and friendship. She shares bits of her own life--her loves, her trails, and triumphs--and the lessons she's learned.

Many of Susan L. Taylor's readers already collect her editorials and find in them a source of encouragement, self-affirmation, empowerment, and peace of mind. Now they can have new essays and a few previously published favorites elegantly bound in a gift-sized paperback edition to keep for themselves or to give as a gift of love to those who are special to them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #182791 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Released on: 1999-12-08
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 110 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Taylor, the editor-in-chief of Essence , mixes personal anecdotes, black pride and an upbeat spirituality in these brief essays, many of them reprinted from her magazine. Though the wisdom she dispenses is hardly original, her direct style and warmth should reach her target audience of African American women. "We'll never feel content if our happiness depends on someone else's behavior," Taylor writes, noting that she has learned to measure success not by wealth but through "happiness, personal satisfaction and being of service to others." Her most powerful essays are the most self-revealing: in one clearly painful recollection, she concludes that her father's furious reaction to her surreptitious meeting with a young man humiliated her but may ultimately have saved her. "What I felt was a shameful experience that put a damper on my sexuality actually prevented me from becoming pregnant as a teenager." Although Taylor regularly invokes a Christian God, that God is nondenominational and her exhortations are not to doctrine but to a more personal faith. First serial to Essence; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The editor-in-chief of Essence , Taylor writes deeply personal yet relevant essays that affirm the necessity of faith, love, belief, endurance, intuition, acceptance of life in the face of death, health, and intimacy. Taylor writes first of all for black women, sharing her experience of poverty after divorce and of finding faith not only in God but also in herself. Yet ultimately what Taylor writes appeals to common humanity while encouraging transcendence--perhaps most powerfully set forth by her friend Marie, suffering from cancer, who suddenly, helplessly watched her house burn with all of her children inside but who later found the courage to become an advocate for children. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Taylor's book is in step with the many self-help and guided meditation books currently on the market. She urges her readers to think positively and to have faith that the good will come to them. She is also a realist and states clearly that this may not make life easier to live, but that it will change the way one thinks about that life for the better. Drawing from her own experiences and a rich tradition of spiritual teaching, Taylor talks to her readers as a sister might. She relates stories and lessons with gentleness and humor, and she empowers and encourages those who read her essays to look inside themselves for strength. While some of the essays have been reprinted from her column in Essence magazine, many are new. Her fans will find a familiar friend, and others will discover a spiritual companion to enjoy on their journey. Mary Deeley

Customer Reviews

Soul Food
This Book was truely replineshing to my spirt in one of the most desperate times of my life. After loosing everything I had in my life all at once,, Home, Job, Car, & Boyfriend, I was in some severe depression, and then my mother gave me this book. Susan's writings and experiences were something I could relate to, she spoke w/t such honesty w/t out preaching. Succesfully conveying the message that "Life is not a Destination its a Journey" Its all about the lessons you learn from your struggles, if you so choose to open your eyes. This Book will do anyone good. BUY IT NOW!

Fantastic Insight, Wisdom and Inspiration. 10 Stars!
Susan Taylor did one remarkable job in sharing her deeply personal views, experiences, and lessons to uplift her readers. Through this beautifully written compilation of her articles, we are all given boundless possibilities to overcome and prevail over anything on the outside, as we embrace our God-given divine co-creative capacity to create and thrive in every area of our life, despite setbacks or life altering challenges.
Written with heart, soul, and wisdom, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be authentically inspired and renewed. A fantastic read, and one that you will want to re-read again!
Barbara Rose, author of "Stop Being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE" and 'If God Was Like Man'
Editor of inspire! magazine

A Decade of Inspiration
Although the Amazon description says the book was published in 1994 / 1999 - I actually purchased it in early 1993. I must have an early copy. Around that time, a friend of mine kept bringing photocopies of Ms. Taylor's column to my work and sharing them with me. Every single one literally sang to my heart. When I saw this book, I HAD to have it.

Susan Taylor's writing, much like the lady herself, is eloquent and stylish, sassy and bold. Most of all, everytime I turn to this book I receive hope, calm direction, encouragment, spiritual recharges - the list is endless.

Throughout the years, I have pulled "In The Spirit" down from the shelf wondering if I'd outgrown it yet. So many times a book that was inspirational at one point in my life doesn't carry into another time & place. But this one does. Susan Taylor is a writer whose work is timeless.

The essays in this book also speak to a commonality - the Spirit of God within us all - that crosses all sorts of the 'boundary lines' that we humans like to draw. I strongly encourage people of all genders, races, ethnic and religious backgrounds to purchase this book.