Your Heart Was Made to Linger Here
—Book Review
Some books bring a quick invitation to “Read me” and then move along to your next thing.
Other books encourage you to make room in your heart for them: to linger, to ponder, and to act on them.
This new book by Oren Jay Sofer is the latter kind. Your Heart Was Made for This is a stick-around-awhile book.
The book is about cultivating twenty-six qualities that help us lead more whole lives, including Wisdom, Curiosity, Ease, Integrity, and Wonder.
I finished my first reading of the book this month. But I’ll begin anew in January, taking all of 2024 (that’s the plan anyway), for more reflecting and doing.
The book is set up perfectly as a year-long companion. Divided into four parts, with six or seven chapters in each, it allows a convenient two weeks for each of the twenty-six chapters.
Each chapter begins with (1) stories and encouragement, then proceeds into (2) reflections for “Getting Started,” (3) meditations for “Going Deeper”, and (4) actions for “Embodying [the trait]”, ending with a short section for (5) “If you have difficulties.”
Sample: Chapter 8, Courage
For example, chapter 8 is about enhancing our Courage. Sofer begins with this quote:
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
– Audre Lorde
(1) He then shares about his fear of having a child (he’s now a new dad) and goes into other relevant commentary. Sofer writes,
“I fear the intensity of grief and pain that I know accompanies any depth of love and joy in this life. They are inseparable companions, as necessary as up and down, left and right, and it takes courage to acknowledge that.”
(2) For the “Getting Started” section, he advises you to consider one or two challenges you’ve already faced in life. Consider what helped you face any fear or anxiety you felt as you lived through the challenge. Recognize the courage it took to walk through the situation, in spite of the fear.
(3) In the “Going Deeper” phase, Sofer suggests a short meditation on resting your heart while you bring the patient attention of a parent to what you are fearing or avoiding, recalling that courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to be present in the face of fear.
(4) For “Embodying Courage,” Sofer advises that you “choose carefully the next thing that is just beyond your comfort zone” in a challenge you’re currently confronting. Share with another person one specific first step you can take in the next week.
(5) And finally, “If you have difficulties,” Sofer says,
“If you feel stuck, lost, or confused, try dialing things back. Choose a task that doesn’t appear quite so challenging, and develop some strength and momentum there. Slowly work up to bigger challenges.”
Each section is more fleshed out than these brief snippets, but these provide a quick snapshot into the wisdom and practical guidance in this book. It’s meant to be modified to suit your own circumstances and needs, which I look forward to doing in 2024.
Do you have a book you’d like to linger with in the year ahead? Share in the comments.
My thanks to Netgalley + Shambhala
Publications for the review copy of this book.
This certainly sounds like a book that begs to be lingered over, Lisa. Thanks for the recommendation!
Blessings!
Lisa, this is like a needed invitation. I find myself lingering over few books these days. It’s like there’s always more to read or write or do or scan. Thanks for these words. I’ll hold them close as we head into the next year. After all, what’s the rush? And what good’s a good read if not savored and absorbed and fully appreciated.
Merry Christmas to you, friend, despite all that tries to intrude. I’m grateful for your long-time presence in my life all these years.
Wow…this book sounds really good, Lisa. I’ll put it on my wish list. I just went through a book that I am still lingering with…The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks by Dustin Crowe. I loved it because it wasn’t a 1,2,3 self-help type of book like so many I have seen on the subject. I’ve actually finished the main part of the book and am now in the process (and almost finished) finishing up the 30 day Scripture Challenge in the back of the book.
I just finished reading a book (which definitely wasn’t a ” lingering book”, but one I think you would enjoy. Have you read Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns? It had my emotions all over the place!
After I read this, I went back to linger over the quotes, Lisa. I can easily see why it’s not a quick read. Love and blessings for a season filled with comfort and peace!
love the phrase a stick-around-awhile book. What a great idea to find a book to accompany us into and through the new year. Sounds like a winner too. Thanks and Merry Christmas, Lisa!
Love that you are rereading it each month. And of course, the curiosity in me wonders how this associates w/ your 2024 word, which somehow, I suspect that it does! 🙂
Merry Christmas, you beautiful human you!
xo
Lynn
How interesting. There’s a lot in that. And I think as humans we can get stuck in certain patterns or where fear over takes us. Might check out. #TrafficJamWeekend
Hi, Lisa – I love books to linger over. This one sounds exceptional. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thanks Lisa, it sounds like a great read and it’s always good to linger over books, sometimes we rush through them too fast.
This sounds like a book worth lingering over. Thank you for the recommendation.
I don’t tend to read non-fiction, though have in the past. I think I struggle with books like that because I need time to think about them and absorb them.
Lisa, I hadn’t heard of this book before reading this post. This definitely sounds like a take-time-to-ponder kind of book. Thank you for sharing about it and giving a sampling of how it’s set up. I’m adding it to my TBR list.
What a great idea to live with this book through the year. I will have to check it out.
I once read Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables throughout an entire year – it has 365 chapters. That was a memorable experience.
Next year I am planning to read One Year to a Writing Life by Susan Tiberghien, together with another writer I met here. It will be great to do something in person, much as I value all my online interactions.
I look forward to more of your ponderings on this book!
I love it when I read through a book and then decide that I need to reread and savor its message!
I was like that with Dr Michael Mosley’s Just One Thing which I read about this time last year. Thanks for linking up again this month.
Lisa, this sounds like a book I may need to read soon! Thank you for sharing it with us at The Crazy Little Love Birds link party #18.