Good collaboration is a real joy, and that’s why i was thrilled to spend time with Nancy Bieber over the past months, building a new website to promote her book on spiritual discernment. Like a story out of The Secret, a book deal just fell in her lap last year. It was a veritable sign from God after she’d just become clear of her desire to write a book for the first time. Such is the ease with which she seems to work – with me too at least. And the website was no different.
For me, Nancy’s new book, Decision Making and Spiritual Discernment is not just a website project. It’s close to my heart. While unemployed this past year, i spent some intentional time exploring professional possibilities for my life and my family. Nancy played a key role in that process, convening a clearness committee with my wife and me that explored one possibly risky venture. In essence, we were walking a few steps of the book as she was writing it. Nancy is a master convener with the insight and patience of a classic Magician. And she brings that insight to her writing, outlining a process and some very do-able practices that help cull the wisdom of the Divine into the practical Now.
Working with Nancy was a smooth and seamless collaboration. She had never ventured into webspace and i hadn’t read the book. Any talk of “sales” or “marketing” in those terms made her cringe. And yet, we were of one mind that more people deserve to read and do the process and practices that she was sharing. Her “product” (don’t cringe Nancy!) has real value and deserves a wider audience beyond her family and friends in Lancaster County and throughout the Society of Friends where’s she’s already well known.
When someone practices what they preach — and “preach” pretty high-minded ways of being in the world as Nancy does — they win a deep, natural respect. Nancy has won that — from me, from her community of faith in Lancaster and from others i’ve chanced to meet. And her respect-full and ease-full collaboration with me is one more example of that. So i heartily encourage you to check out this elegant piece of website design at http://nancybieber.com. And while you’re at it, check out her book too!
* A clearness committee is a Quaker process in which fellow Friends help someone gain clarity around a particular question or issue by asking open questions and offering occasional insight. The process was a blessing for my wife and me. Incidentally, we are mentioned in the book, though i haven’t seen the final copy.