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About Barbara
I’m Barbara Falconer Newhall and I’ve got a serious case of the human condition.
I’ve done it all: career, family, house, garden, and a prize-winning book, "Wrestling with God." The result: I'm a woman of years, lots of them, who can't help seeing things from the funny side.
Tucked away on this website are hundreds of riffs on life. I hope you’ll seek them out – and keep me company as I discover the humor, if not the meaning, in what life throws my way. Learn More
THE LATEST
I’m Playing Hooky From My Blog Today
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments
I’m playing hooky from my blog today. So this is not a blog post. This is me complaining — again — about my consarned to-do list. Read more.
BARBARA’S BOOK
★ Publishers Weekly, starred review
Any seeker of any faith will be blessed to read the words of this fine author and observer. Read more.
An inveterate doubter for most of her adult life, journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall embarks upon a quest to find a way to believe in God in the twenty-first century.
The result is Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith, which details her search for the Divine in the lives of diverse Americans – from a fundamentalist Christian to a progressive Muslim to a Buddhist monk.Seekers of all persuasions will feel represented here, from priests, ministers, and rabbis to engineers, physicists, and avowed non-believers . . . a riverflow of a book. — Phil Cousineau, host of PBS’s Global Spirit
Recent Riffs on Life
We’re Not Immortal After All . . . Good to Know
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 4 Comments
We’re not immortal after all. When we were twenty, we thought we were, which meant some of us did things like hop a freight train to Los Angeles. Read more.
I’m 83 and I’m Dumping My Bucket List
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments
Sometime between the pandemic and my husband’s death I began dumping out the contents of my travel bucket list. Read more.
New! Get Barbara’s Special Gift
Wondering how that kid of yours will turn out?
Take heart. They might surprise you. My daughter did!
I tell that story in this free Special Edition, Was our daughter headed for the dark side?
To get your copy of this free downloadable PDF, enter your email below – and check your Inbox. Enjoy!
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DON’T MISS!
Amazing Places: A Walk Around Oakland’s Jingletown
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 3 Comments
Is Oakland the next Brooklyn? Lots of people are saying so. As rents and living expenses skyrocket in San Francisco, thanks to the tech boom, hipsters and artists are relocating across the Bay to Oakland. Read more.
How to Hang a Quilt — We Did It Our Way. Sheltering at Home Week 36
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 14 Comments
How to hang a quilt? We had a beautiful, handstitched quilt that felt like a voice from the past. Here’s what we did with it. Read more.
How Selective Service Made a Man of My Son — Without Even Trying
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments
In a few weeks my son would be eighteen, time to sign up for Selective Service. I’d filled out forms for him for years, but this was different. This piece of paper could send him off to war. Read more.