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

I read this book during a difficult time of waiting and wondering. The timing couldn’t have been better. The author is an excellent writer. I know her work from her novels. This book was a great read and felt like a compassionate and honest journey. I am not alone and walked with her through a similar time. I am also a person of faith and this was a tender encouragement without preaching or parenting. It is authentic and invitational. I am also 65 and in a stage of reinventing my life. I found this book to be inspiring in that regard, too.

This book was an eye-opener for me! It made me gain much appreciation for the notion of waiting on God in the in-between seasons of life! This book is also full of personal stories from Sue Monk Kidd and insights as to why living the questions of life is necessary. I recommend this book to all who need a fresh perspective and insight into waiting on God.

This exploration of spiritual growth reminds us that we feed the heart and soul by waiting, cocooning, listening and, in time, emerging as a new being, a beautiful butterfly.

I love this author and have enjoyed all her books. She is just two years older than I am, so I have identified with the stages of her spiritual journey and have appreciated her honesty about her "dark nights of the soul" and her periods of doubt, anger, and fear. This book was written when Sue Monk Kidd was in her forties, but its lesson is one most of us have to keep learning. She had always been the "good girl," living up to everyone's expectations but chafing inside a prison of her own—and society's—making. It didn't help that she was married to a Southern Baptist minister and was trying to live up to those expectations as well. She felt frozen, stuck, and desperate—as though she had lost her way and her true self at the same time. In the discovery of a cocoon, she finds the analogy she needs to begin working through this unhappy period. She pulls in an impressive body of Christian writings and quotations that helped her realize she was not unique in this experience and certainly not alone. As she begins to identify with the caterpillar inside the cocoon, she stumbles on the importance of being still and waiting—or trusting that God is working in her and for her and trusting that when the time is right (and only then) will her wings unfurl and enable her to fly again. If the analogy seems at times a bit simplistic and pat, the author did a beautiful job of making her case with deeply felt logic and rich references and reminders that there are things in the life of the soul that just can't be rushed. "Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried." (Henry David Thoreau) She recalls a retreat to a monastery, when she asked a monk how he could sit so still and be so patient with doing nothing. "I hope you'll hear what I'm about to tell you," he replied. "I hope you'll hear it all the way down to your toes. When you're waiting, you're not doing nothing. You're doing the most important something there is. You're allowing the your soul to grow up. If you can't be still and wait, you can't become what God created you to be." Wow...I found that very profound. In fact, I found many soul-nourishing insights and have added many authors she quoted to my To Read or To Re-Read list: Thomas Merton, Carl Jung, St. Teresa of Avila, Henri Nouwen, Meister Eckhart and others. Some of the lines I highlighted will give you a better sense of the book's message: "...lots of times we need questions more than answers." "She had come upon the 'epiphany' buried in her crisis." A crisis is a holy summons to cross a threshold." "Jung once pointed out that religion can easily become a defense against an experience of God." "We have within us a deep longing to grow and become a new creature, but we possess an equally strong compulsion to remain the same—to burrow down in our safe, secure places." "If we're to wait, we must relearn the extravagance of grace." "The point of the spiritual life is that you dance the music God pipes in you." "The spiritual journey is one of becoming real." This book was a treasure trove of truth and wisdom. The trick, of course, is learning to apply the lessons in my real life.

Don't let the various reviews' comments about being for mid-life crises and/or traditional Christians only put you off as I & friends of very different ages & life stages & challenges all found this book incredibly helpful & powerful & so wonderfully soothing - the perfect balm for any wounding or challenges or scary developments that might occur in life. Although her writing does include some Christian references, I was very impressed by the depth of spirituality and understanding she brings to it i.e. part of what makes the book so special is her bringing much greater depth of understanding and authenticity to what it's all about. I am so glad that her exquisite writing style in "the secret life of bees" made me look for more books written by her as I found this book infinitely more powerful and even more of a joy to read in every way. Note that although I loved the writing style and hence journey that unfolded in the "... bees" novel so much that she's one of the few authors I went to look for more books by, I didn't think her tale-spinning abilities were quite as strong as some gifted story-tellers. So I personally think her writing strengths and power of insights and understanding are infinitely better conveyed in this book than in "... bees". However, I'm glad she is writing novels also as those can hopefully open up a greater audience for the incredible power and depth of all she can share with us. She is definitely somebody I'd want to hear more from and feel blessed to have discovered.

The ONLY book I have read FIVE times - each at a formative point in my adult life. And each time it has soothed my restless and yearning heart, helped me be kinder with myself during periods of great growth, and helped me to help other women too. I am a life coach and this book has transformed many other women’s lives over the dozen years I have assigned it. There is very little that I have found which reaches the heart so directly in times of need. I have gifted this book more than any other (that’s why I purchased it this time - as a gift to send to a friend in turmoil). And I will continue to do so!

As usual, Sue Monk Kidd delivers through her own spiritual journeying a glimpse into the call of the Eternal and the courage to answer. The courage to take the road less traveled, to see where we are being led, if but willing to follow. (I already bought as gifts.) So glad that there are those among us, willing to lay bare their own longings and stories, so as to light the lamps of others wherever they are in their journey. One heart after another. Happy discovering.

Another top book for me. What a tender woman. She is seeing me through a very tough time. Thank You Sue for writing this book.

This is a book about waiting as the title suggests, and is an essential read for anyone who feels that they are waiting on God. Yes, Sue Monk Kidd writes about her waiting resulting from midlife crisis, but the nature of her specific 'wait' is somewhat irrelevent to the message of the book. She explores the concept of a 'call' to wait; that God's purpose for us may require that we spend a period of 'active waiting' in preparation for what is to come. Throughout the book she weaves in the imagery of the caterpillar, who 'waits' cocooned in the darkness of the chrysalis, waiting to become a beautiful butterfly: the glorious embodiment of the 'true self'. But, as you will see, the wait itself becomes almost as important as the unfurling of wings. This is a beautiful read, which I guarantee will enhance your spiritual journeying. If you read this book, Sue Monk Kidd will become a treasured travelling companion on that journey. Odd though this may seem, I thoroughly recommend that you read this alongside 'Hope for the Flowers' by Trina Paulus, a children's book about caterpillars Yellow and Stripe, to which Monk Kidd frequently makes reference.

Wonderful book that helps you understanding the importance of waiting with the Divine as the way you have lived in the world slowly transforms.

Good book

Made a major impact in helping me to still my soul. Calming, wise and poetic. Makes you realise that life is not about constant activity and doing.