Nurture the Wow ─ Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting

A deeply affecting, funny, insightful meditation that challenges readers to find the spiritual meaning of parenting.

Every day, parents are bombarded by demands. The pressures of work and life are relentless; our children's needs are often impossible to meet; and we rarely, if ever, allow ourselves the time and attention necessary to satisfy our own inner longings. Parenthood is difficult, demanding, and draining. And yet, argues Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, if we can approach it from a different mindset, perhaps the work of parenting itself can offer the solace we seek.

Rooted in Judaism but incorporating a wide-range of religious and literary traditions,Nurture the Wow asks, Can ancient ideas about relationships, drudgery, pain, devotion, and purpose help make the hard parts of a parent's job easier and the magical stuff even more so? Ruttenberg shows how parenting can be considered a spiritual practice—and how seeing it that way can lead to transformation. This is a parenthood book, not a parenting book; it shows how the experiences we have as parents can change us for the better.

Enlightening, uplifting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Nurture the Wow reveals how parenthood—in all its crazy-making, rage-inducing, awe and joy-filled moments—can actually be the path to living fully, authentically, and soulfully.

Danya Ruttenberg was named one of ten "rabbis to watch" by Newsweekand one of the "50 most influential women rabbis" by The Forward. Her writing has appeared inThe New York Times, The Atlantic, Salon, and elsewhere. Her first book, Surprised by God,was nominated for a Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature and was a Hadassah Book Club selection. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and children.