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When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Plus)
by Sue Monk Kidd

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6981.When_the_Heart_Waits_Spiritual_Direction_for_Life_s_Sacred_Questions?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Plus)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1165605365m/6981.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6981.When_the_Heart_Waits_Spiritual_Direction_for_Life_s_Sacred_Questions?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4711.Sue_Monk_Kidd">Sue Monk Kidd</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11338824?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars "It's always difficult and risky to try to put soulmaking into words." - Kidd. This is a worthy disclaimer in the preface. Kidd's description of crisis and dispair and spirituality sometimes lean on the heavy, waxing, maudlin side - and if I had not experienced such times myself, I would abhor their description. However, I've been there as almost all of us have, and the few moments of tangled emotionl overkill are well worth the many nuggets nestled in between. I am thoroughly enjoying this and maybe I cringe b/c I see entirely too much of myself in her lower moments. She has an artist's soul for sure, and I am deeply enjoying that kinship in her writing. I am only a couple chapters in and alrady have a fistfull of treasures:
 
 "Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideas will serve as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the programme of life's morning--for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will have become a lie." - C.G. Jung
 
 "The fullness of one's soul evolves slowly. We're asked to go within to gestate the newness God is trying to form; we're asked to collaborate with grace. That doesn't mean that grace isn't a gift. Nor does it mean that the deliberate process of waiting produces grace. But waiting does provide the time and space necessary for grace to happen. Spirit needs a container to pour itself into. Grace needs an arena in which to incarnate. Waiting can be such a place if we allow it." - Kidd
 
 "Would I see that waiting, with all its quiet passion and hidden fire, is the real crucible of spiritual transformation?...Waiting is thus both passive and passionate. It's a vibrant, contemplative work." - Kidd
 
 THIS IS MY FAVORITE THUS FAR: WAITING...IS THE REAL CRUCIBLE OF SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION. Too true when you think of God's plan "for the fullness of time." The long awaited fulfillment of prophecy, all those barren women pleading to God, the emprisonments, the wanderings, the exiles, the captivities. 
 
 "We tend to forget, I think, the power of a symbol to mediate grace and move us towards change." - Kidd. Too true. Kidd's is a cocoon, mine has always been an egg and only this year have I been attacked by unexpected circles/openings - a black hole, a birth canal, an internal oculus. 
 
 "We went on to heaven the long way round." & "Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried." - Henry David Thoreau. This 'long way round' is the nature of life, and it calls to mind the Exodus yet again. Again, a theme of all life but especially mine, I have my eye out for the Exodus in all things. 
 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/386029?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Shannon's review
rating:
recommended for: mothers and artists

"It's always difficult and risky to try to put soulmaking into words." - Kidd. This is a worthy disclaimer in the preface. Kidd's description of crisis and dispair and spirituality sometimes lean on the heavy, waxing, maudlin side - and if I had not experienced such times myself, I would abhor their description. However, I've been there as almost all of us have, and the few moments of tangled emotionl overkill are well worth the many nuggets nestled in between. I am thoroughly enjoying this and maybe I cringe b/c I see entirely too much of myself in her lower moments. She has an artist's soul for sure, and I am deeply enjoying that kinship in her writing. I am only a couple chapters in and alrady have a fistfull of treasures:

"Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideas will serve as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the pr...more "It's always difficult and risky to try to put soulmaking into words." - Kidd. This is a worthy disclaimer in the preface. Kidd's description of crisis and dispair and spirituality sometimes lean on the heavy, waxing, maudlin side - and if I had not experienced such times myself, I would abhor their description. However, I've been there as almost all of us have, and the few moments of tangled emotionl overkill are well worth the many nuggets nestled in between. I am thoroughly enjoying this and maybe I cringe b/c I see entirely too much of myself in her lower moments. She has an artist's soul for sure, and I am deeply enjoying that kinship in her writing. I am only a couple chapters in and alrady have a fistfull of treasures:

"Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideas will serve as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the programme of life's morning--for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will have become a lie." - C.G. Jung

"The fullness of one's soul evolves slowly. We're asked to go within to gestate the newness God is trying to form; we're asked to collaborate with grace. That doesn't mean that grace isn't a gift. Nor does it mean that the deliberate process of waiting produces grace. But waiting does provide the time and space necessary for grace to happen. Spirit needs a container to pour itself into. Grace needs an arena in which to incarnate. Waiting can be such a place if we allow it." - Kidd

"Would I see that waiting, with all its quiet passion and hidden fire, is the real crucible of spiritual transformation?...Waiting is thus both passive and passionate. It's a vibrant, contemplative work." - Kidd

THIS IS MY FAVORITE THUS FAR: WAITING...IS THE REAL CRUCIBLE OF SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION. Too true when you think of God's plan "for the fullness of time." The long awaited fulfillment of prophecy, all those barren women pleading to God, the emprisonments, the wanderings, the exiles, the captivities.

"We tend to forget, I think, the power of a symbol to mediate grace and move us towards change." - Kidd. Too true. Kidd's is a cocoon, mine has always been an egg and only this year have I been attacked by unexpected circles/openings - a black hole, a birth canal, an internal oculus.

"We went on to heaven the long way round." & "Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried." - Henry David Thoreau. This 'long way round' is the nature of life, and it calls to mind the Exodus yet again. Again, a theme of all life but especially mine, I have my eye out for the Exodus in all things.

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