Shulamith Clearbridge worships with Swarthmore Friends Meeting and holds a minute of religious service from the meeting. Her new book, Good Night: Interfaith Prayers & Meditations Before Sleep, grew from years of collecting prayers, quotations, poetry, and reflections that accompanied her through periods of caregiving, change, and spiritual searching. Published this year by Wipf and Stock Publishers, the book gathers readings from many faith traditions and secular sources into a nightly practice intended to help readers put the day to rest so they can sleep well.
Good Night began during Shulamith Clearbridge’s time in Vermont, when she joined a Taizé compline service at a church in Middlebury. “I loved evening prayer in community, so stuck with it for some months,” she said, but the online services that followed “used conventional readings that didn’t speak to me.” Shulamith said she had spent years collecting “quotations and prayers from many sources, both sacred and secular,” and that “since I hadn’t had a spiritual community, I had found companions and their wisdom in books.” She began putting those readings together for herself, first as evening worship and later as a bedtime practice. “I kept adding quotations and prayers,” she said, “and eventually I had a collection and a method that I realized might be of help to others.”
Shulamith moved to the Swarthmore area in 2021 after time in Vermont connected with family caregiving. “We had only a handful of meetings there so I was excited about the many meetings I could visit here.” Many meetings nearby were still meeting online at the time, but Swarthmore Meeting was doing something different. “Swarthmore took a unique approach: some people Zoomed to meeting from their homes, but others were gathering on the back porch of the meetinghouse and Zooming in together with several laptops.” She said, “So I went there, so I could actually meet people. It was a perfect fit!”
Her path toward Friends had started years earlier. “I’ve lived in many places, including Chicago and Seattle, and despite searching for a spiritual path, never did I hear of Friends.” A friend in Port Townsend, Washington, told her about Quaker meeting and she decided to go. “I went, and it seemed wonderful.” She added, “I went to a meeting for worship for business to make sure. I was astonished at ‘sense of the meeting.’” Her response, she said, “At last!”
That move toward Pennsylvania was tied to finding spiritual community too. “I came to the end of a sojourn in Vermont connected with family caregiving, and was asking Spirit to guide me to the spiritual community that was my next step.” She said, “I ended up visiting Pendle Hill, and knew I wanted to be connected with them, so moved here.” She later taught workshops at Pendle Hill and served as a Minnie Jane writer in residence in 2023. “Pendle Hill is an amazing place and I’m grateful for it,” she said. She later added, “My spiritual home became Swarthmore Meeting.”
The book itself took a longer road than Shulamith expected. “In May of 2022, I proposed the book to a publisher, who liked it.” That process later stalled. “So in 2025, I proposed it to Wipf and Stock Publishers, who accepted it.” Shulamith said the book can meet different needs for different readers. “The book can have several layers of impact, depending on what people need.” She said, “Some readings are to provide comfort during hard times. Some are to help us let go of stress and obsessive thoughts.” Others, she said, “inspire us in various directions,” and “can assist our spiritual growth.”
Putting the book together brought a few surprises. “When I attempted to organize the readings according to the emotion they addressed, and also to sort them into examen practices, lessons, affirmations or intentions, and prayers, I thought it would be tremendously complicated and difficult.” She said, “I was amazed that they fell into place as if I’d chosen them with that in mind.” She added, “I think Spirit had a large hand in this!” Shulamith also said, “I was surprised by finding quite a few readings that made their point through humor.” She added, “Generally books for contemplation and prayer are completely serious,” and was pleased that “this one is light, is funny, in places.”
Living with the material for years changed her relationship with it too. “This book has been in process for about six years.” She said, “Having the readings in my mind for such a long period of time has integrated them into my heart and my thoughts much more than simply reading one or two of them in the evening.” She added, “It has changed me. This is a tremendous gift that I never expected.”
Shulamith is already working on another project centered on Margaret Fell. “I loved what I found,” she said. “Not only was she a beautiful writer, but she is uncannily relevant to our own hard times.” She said the work became Bubbling Springs: The Life & Writings of Margaret Fell, in Modern Language and Neutral Gender. As workshops developed around the material, she found that “it filled a need for people,” both in Margaret Fell’s words and in learning more about women who helped found Friends.
Looking ahead, Shulamith said, “I hope to propose it to a publisher late this year.” She added, “After that, I have another project somewhat sketched out, and then another very long one waiting that might take the rest of my life!”
Reviews of Good Night: Interfaith Prayers & Meditations Before Sleep
Throughout the centuries, Friends have often turned to the written word for comfort, instruction, inspiration, and prayer. In this spirit, Shulamith Clearbridge brings a new offering, weaving Quaker quotations and prayers with a treasury of spiritual wisdom from many traditions.
For forty nights, you are invited to a spiritual practice of putting the day to rest. Shulamith provides a four-part practice: a reading or questions for reflection, a lesson, an intention or affirmation, and a prayer. The readings offer time to breathe and be present, time to process and sanctify the day, and an opportunity to rest in God.
Sections on fear and worry, forgiveness, mourning, anger, and many more, allow the reader to choose the subject they most need to pray on; or, if they work straight through the book for forty nights, to address many aspects of the human condition. Reading with the heart rather than the mind lets the words bring us closer to God.
With this book, Shulamith offers us a spiritual practice that people from all backgrounds and beliefs can benefit by. The words of our Quaker forebears especially will speak to Friends. Shulamith provides updated language of passages from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries alongside the original words, seeking to be more accessible to all who pray. The modern language can more directly speak across the centuries to our present-day condition.
If you have ever come across a quote that stopped you in your tracks, a poem that painted truth with a capital “T,” or a prayer that brought you to a deep place, this book is for you. Let Shulamith and these pages be a spiritual guide.
—Janaki Spickard Keeler, Editor, Pendle Hill Publications.
After an annoying and frustrating day, as I was getting ready for sleep, I opened Good Night and looked up the section on Anger. The exercise of Settling the Day let me look carefully at why I was annoyed. The Lesson loosened the frustration in my heart. The Affirmation and Intention enabled me to let my irritation go. The prayer connected me with Divine Love. I slept well, resting in the Presence, and rose in the morning free to experience the blessings of a new day. I now use this book on any day, not only when I have a special need.
Through Good Night, Shulamith has provided daily practices for deeper connection to the Source and better days.
—Joel D. Cook, Speaker and workshop leader.
I recommend keeping Good Night beside your bed. Remembering and reflecting on our experiences helps us to “settle the day” with greater receptivity to the divine presence in our daily lives. The book contains wisdom from Quaker writers as well as from many other spiritual traditions, quotations that help us focus our minds and hearts on eternal truths as we prepare for sleep. This beautiful book invites us to rest in God all through the night and receive the blessings and spiritual guidance which are always available to us.
—Marcelle Martin, Author of Our Life is Love: the Quaker Spiritual Journey and A Guide to Faithfulness Groups
