The Waiting Place / Review

Author: Eileen Button

Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: Thomas Nelson (June 7, 2011)

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0849946255

Book Description:

A collection of essays describing the beauty and humor that can be found in what often feels like a most useless state-The Waiting Place.
We all spend precious time just waiting. We wait in traffic, grocery store lines, and carpool circles. We wait to grow up, for true love, and for our children to be born. We even wait to die. But amazing things can happen if we open our eyes in The Waiting Place and peer into its dusty corners. Sometimes relationships are built, faith is discovered, dreams are (slowly) realized, and our hearts are expanded.
With humor and heart-breaking candor, Eileen Button breathes life into stagnant and, at times, difficult spaces. Throughout this collection of essays she contends that The Waiting Place can be a most miraculous place-a place where beauty can be experienced, the sacred can be realized, and God can be found working in the midst of it all.
Includes stories on waiting for:

• the day to end
• a place called home
• the fish to bite
• a baby's healing
• church to be over
• a husband's return
• children to grow
• a mother's acceptance
• a loved one to die

As Eileen says, "To wait is human. To find life in The Waiting Place, divine."

My thoughts:

The Waiting Place is a book for everyone-- we can all identify with it. The problem starts in childhood-we can't wait to be a teenager; can`t wait to date. Afterward, we can wait to get out of school or can't wait to get married. We can't wait to get a good job; can't wait until we have children; wait for our children to grow up and find a nice life of their own; wait from paycheck to paycheck; wait to retire; so on and so forth. At last, we find ourselves in the winter of life and are riddled with the feeling that we have wished and waiting our life away; waiting for the future! We have always been waiting on something, but have not taken the time to appreciate the moments of our life or appreciated those we love. The Waiting Place is a collection of insightful essays that deal with this issue. We can find the joy of the divine in our waiting. We can learn to celebrate each and every day; celebrate today. The author has written a very enjoyable book, which also gives us some big reality checks. Disclaimer: I have received a review copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers.