The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife

Praise for The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife

"A fantastically written, powerfully wise offering from Ben Katt to his generation, especially to men of his generation – and thus a gift to our world of pain and promise.”
–Krista Tippett, award-winning broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author

"Katt aims in his spirited debut to help middle-aged readers 'grappling with anxiety' and 'lost in loneliness' recover their purpose....From biblical figures to movie heroes, the 'universal way home to wholeness' is an arduous but eminently human trek, Katt concludes. This inspires."
–Publishers Weekly

"Well organized, deeply thoughtful, and vivid in its encouragement to follow the call. At times comforting both in its awareness of what a reader in midlife may be struggling with and in its assurances that the more uncomfortable stages of the Hero’s Journey do eventually lead back to hope and purpose."
–Englewood Review of Books

"The Way Home is a powerful story and an invitation, especially for those who are asking what it means to come home to ourselves and embark on the complex journey of being an adventurous, vulnerable human. Through Ben’s visceral and honest storytelling, we remember what it means to be alive, to go deep within ourselves when we have no idea what we will find. The wisdom provided in this book comes from the ideas of grace, space, and pace, and will guide us forward, no matter where we are on the journey. All humans long to find expansive places. I’m grateful this book is a guide into those spaces, helping us find the power of language and gift of story along the way."
–Kaitlin B Curtice, award winning author of Native and Living Resistance

“The Way Home offers timely guidance for a timeless tangle: how do we fully show up to our lives? Ben shines a fresh light on what homecoming actually means and why finding wholeness matters for how we relate to ourselves and others. This book shows great heart and will be welcomed by anyone courageously willing to trade the familiar, risk the unknown, and engage the mythic, intimate practices of being truly free, alive, awake.”
—Koshin Paley Ellison, Zen teacher and author of Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage and Compassion

"Heartfelt and honest storytelling that's packed with wisdom. Ben Katt's The Way Home is a powerful guide for those searching for more meaning and connection—especially men in their midlife."
—Scott Shigeoka, author of SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World

"Ben's courageous and vulnerable offering of his own personal myth serves as a powerfully relevant map for those who have lost their heart in the process of striving to create a fulfilling life based on the often tattered directions we inherited from family and society. I pray that all those who are seeking, especially my brothers who feel lost without a map, somehow, someway, find this one in their hands."
–Aubert Bastiat, founder of Sacred Sons

"I have never read anything that illuminated my own life more, illuminating my own journey with dangerous, remarkable clarity. Ben Katt's The Way Home is the rare book that happens to you. These stories will crack open your own stories; these words will give you language you can find yourself in. This is sage wisdom without any of the pretentiousness--soulful, vulnerable, tender, experiential. The Way Home is also rare in that it fully delivers on the title--if home is what you long for, this book will absolutely guide you there."
–Jonathan Martin, author of The Road Away from God and How to Survive a Shipwreck, director of the Center for Spiritual Life at DePauw University

"I spend a good portion of my life walking with middle aged people (mostly men) who have come to the end of what our Western versions of identity and vocation have offered us. They feel bored, disconnected and searching. They are desperate for a journey toward wholeness that animates a life marked by tenderness, joy, presence and meaning. This book offers a desperately needed vocabulary, practice and lived experience of that journey."
–Jon Huckins, author of Mending the Divides and lead guide for the Journey Home Cohort

"If it hasn't happened to you already, one day you're going to feel the grief and disorientation of being far away from your true home with no precise way to trace your steps back. Let The Way Home be a compass, and Ben Katt, a guide."
–Pamela Ayo Yetunde, pastoral counselor and author of Casting Indra's Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community

"The Way Home is a practical and inspiring guide for those who find themselves in the midst of the midlife transition. Katt shares his deep wisdom cultivated through his own journey through the travails of a midlife transition, in a practical, compassionate, and poignant way helping readers to reframe the midlife crisis as an invitation to wholeness and an exciting new chapter of the journey of life. This book will be the go-to guide for the next generation of adults approaching midlife."
–Brandan Robertson, author of Dry Bones and Holy Wars: A Call for Social and Spiritual Renewal

"The Way Home is moving, thoughtful, and a heart-centered gift for those who are embarking on their own hero's journey. In other words, it's a guide for the journey that each of us must undertake."
–Jerry Colonna, author of Reboot and Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong

"We are all called to a life of wholeness. Ben has listened and is generously sharing the wisdom he found along the way. A wonderful read for myth-lovers and spiritual adventurers."
–Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices

“Toward the end of this book, Ben Katt describes the memorabilia he keeps in his office. Small containers for uncontainable memories. That’s what this book is: a collection of words that gather meaning, decisions, regrets, changes and joy in stories and questions. Ben is a kind guide, and a clear one: he notices the small things, enquires with curiosity and intelligence, queries meaning and belonging, inviting conversation and attention.”
–Pádraig Ó Tuama, host of the Poetry Unbound podcast and author of In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World

"If you're trying to make sense of your life, this book offers a gentle, nourishing and liberating path for uncovering one's deepest truths and callings."
–Leisa Peterson, author of The Mindful Millionaire

"If you’re ready to embark on the soul-inspired reinvention of your life, this book is a beautiful and necessary guide. In The Way Home, Ben Katt describes the transformative stages of The Hero’s Journey in usable, relevant and relatable terms. And he shares the intimate details of his own journey, the struggles and the expanded awareness that comes from trading in mediocrity for mysticism. You may just feel as though you’ve gone on a pilgrimage, and you will definitely feel inspired to stay true to your own journey of a lifetime."
–Tama Kieves, bestselling author of Thriving Through Uncertainty and USA Today-featured visionary career catalyst

"Katt invites us on a journey through personal pain to the suffering of the entire human family. Through his compelling, poignant and humorous storytelling we are invited again and again to surrender our own resistance to reaching the end of our ropes and to being surprised by grace."
–Killian Noe, founding director of Recovery Café

"Ben is an expert guide in the art of getting quiet - helping people access a life of greater joy, compassion, and purpose. He knows the landscape of the inner journey from his years of personal practice and leadership experience. Listen to this vulnerable, daring invitation to embark on your own inner adventure."
–Jesse Israel, meditation expert & founder of The Big Quiet