The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray

by Lindsey Crittenden

Book Overview

The first time she said those words, suggested to her by an Episcopal priest, Lindsey Crittenden was riddled with misgivings. She didn t pray or attend church services she wasn t even sure she... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307347354
• ISBN13: 9780307347350
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Lindsey Crittenden Makes Me Nervous -- and That's What Makes Her Memoir So Powerful!

As a longtime journalist covering the power of spirituality in everyday life, I am drawn to memoirs that -- like Lindsey's story of her life -- invite us into fresh waters. I've read thousands of books in 30-plus years of journalism and I always feel sad when I realize that countless waves of promising spiritual memoirs wind up rippling safely in tried-and-true pools. One phrase I've picked up in critiquing and covering spiritual media, just over the past year, is "the fix is in." The phrase handily describes those books, memoirs especially, in which we can tell from Page 1 precisely what will happen on Page 250. Not so with Lindsey's book, which is why I've been recommending it in my writing for more than a year -- and I'm freshly recommending it during Lent 2008 in an online Lenten project I'm helping to publish. I was moved by her writing about her relationship with her mother toward the end of her mother's life. But, more than that, I was moved by Lindsey's solid-as-steel commitment as a memoirist to be honest about her life. This honesty takes us places, as readers, that we sometimes may not want to go. There are passages in this book that you may never have expected to read in a spiritual memoir. Certainly, Lindsey takes us a good step beyond Anne Lamott. But that's what makes it a terrific book. It's honest. And, yes, honestly this memoir "Will Hold You."

Clearing a Path

Lindsey Crittenden is intelligent and discerning; not one who would turn to God or prayer on faith alone. She is also a person to whom life has given an unusual amount of loss. The fire of isolation brought her into an Episcopalian church, where she met people who believe in God and the teachings of Jesus yet who welcome questions, keen intellect, and authentic sharing of the vulnerability of the heart. Encouraged to experiment, Lindsey discovered faith based not on dogma but on personal experience. Regular prayer creates space for insight, re-framing, and a bodily knowing that one is loved by a Divine presence. After finding a connection to well-being through prayer, Lindsey experienced betrayal and loss that was perhaps the straw on the camel's back. She then survived months of extreme grief and depression during which prayer seemed obsolete. But with time and perseverence Spirit found her again, through nature. Prayer and divinity are much larger and less predictable than a quiet morning meditation or a Sunday at church, though these rituals are often crucial. This book is beautifully written; a fascinating and searingly honest memoir. It's a great read on that level alone. But readers interested in the powerful effect of a concious spiritual practice will find a special resonance. One does not have to be Christian to appreciate this point, or Lindsey's fascinating book. Lindsey is simply telling her own story, prescribing nothing to the reader; any one who chooses can find reinforcement in this book for their own efforts to clear a path for the Divine.

Luminous.

A brave and beautiful memoir, fiercely honest, fluidly told. Spiritual faith has not come easily to Crittenden, a self-proclaimed skeptic whose writing is evidence of her highly rational, ordered mind. It is through small rituals -- her "starter" prayer is simply, "I am here, you are here" -- that she finds her way to a serenity that sustains her through the worst imaginable losses. The kingdom of heaven, she suggests, is revealed not in blinding lights or large truisms, but in the smallest of details, the tiniest moments of grace. The book itself is an illustration. Without losing sight of the larger questions, it is most alive and effective in its small details -- as when the author describes the effects of candlelight, or the headiness of diving into deep water, or the blissful anonymity of a walk down a snowy New York street. There is nothing preachy here, no advice, only an intensely personal and painful coming-to-terms. But it is exactly by keeping things personal and specific that the author touches on universals, and manages to reach other skeptics. Like me.

Constructing a life with the spirit

This book is not another top-down instruction manual, but a bottom-up construction of a life with the spirit, written with searing honesty and realism. Crittenden has a tough journey, from her first timid movements toward prayer ("I am here, you are here" is all she can manage at first) through grief and depression, and into a fuller life. I loved her grasping for ritual in prayer, from candles to prayer books to the Anglican rosary, looking for structure to hold up the amorphous communication with the divine. One of my favourite reads of the year, this memoir is a beautiful prayer in itself, reaching out to the heights and depths of life.

The Water Will Hold You speaks to universal truths, the struggles we all have and the power of hope

Knowing about author Lindsey Crittenden's work, I expected this book to be well written--full of evocative descriptions and beautifully crafted language. What I could not have anticipated was the poignancy of the storytelling presented in the book. More than a skeptic's journey with faith, this book speaks to the darkness and grief associated with loss--loss of our previous beliefs, loss of who we understand ourselves to be, loss of loved ones. And it also speaks to the power of the human spirit to muddle through the muddy, sinking quagmire life presents us with sometimes and the strength and grace it takes to make it out of there alive. This is an incredibly moving and honest book about spirituality, family, and the power we have inside to persevere despite the unexpected twists and turns our lives take.