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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

  • A CASE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
  • MY EVER-CHANGING FAMILY
  • WRITING & READING
  • MY ROCKY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
  • WIDOWED
  • FUNNY BUTTON

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About Barbara

Barbara Falconer Newhall at her home office desk getting ready to do final edits on her book, "Wrestling with God." Photo by Barbara Newhall

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

Widowed: If I Visit His Grave, Will It Help?

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 10 Comments

newhall-gravesite-colma

I said hello to Jon and his family, and then there was nothing more to do in this graveyard.  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.
"Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith" book cover with photo of author Barbara Falconer Newhall

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

Click to learn more about "Wrestling with God"

Recent Riffs on Life

Maybe I Want a Facelift After All

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 12 Comments

window-with-houseplants

Facelifts that leave your cheeks looking like you’re facing into 100-mph headwinds are not for me. Or are they?  Read more.

Big News — Big Changes for This 2009 Website

By Barbara Falconer Newhall 16 Comments

Big Changes for This 2009 Website lawn-chair-on-deck

Two big changes for my — 2009! — website: a major redesign and a more spacious writing schedule for me.  Read more.

MORE RIFFS ON LIFE

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition

  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

  • My Ever-Changing Family

  • On Writing & Reading

Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

DON’T MISS!

A Case of the Human Condition: I’ve Got a Dirty Little Secret — I (Still) Can’t Say No to Toys

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

ewok hut toy about 16 inches tall with ewok characters. Photo by BF Newhall

Some people can’t resist chocolate. For others, it’s clothes. Some folks, oddly enough, will spend $110,000 on a Ferrari with no back seat and hardly any trunk. Imagine that . . . For me as the mother of young children, toys were my weakness. Read more.

Our Globalized, Multi-Faith World

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

globalized, multi-faith world, religion-bookshelf

We live in a globalized, multi-faith world. Can we respect and appreciate each other’s traditions and still hold on to our own dearly held convictions?  Read more.

Confessions of a So-So Wife: The Night I Forgot to Make Dinner

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Jon Newhall at the kitchen counter preparing salmon to bake for his wife's birthday. Photo by Barbara Newhall

It would be the dinner of my dreams, the married life I’d imagined as a girl back in Detroit. The table would be set, the chicken roasted to a golden brown. Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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True stories often told through a humorous lens–because you just can't make them up!

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Is It OK to Kill Stuff? Yes, If It’s a Mosquito or a Eucalyptus Tree

invasive-eucalyptus-in-california

Is it OK to kill stuff? I couldn’t kill the spider lurking in my shower. But I can kill invasive eucalyptus trees and dive-bombing mosquitoes.  Read more.

MORE "ON THE FUNNY SIDE"

CATEGORIES

  • A Case of the Human Condition
  • My Ever-Changing Family
  • On Writing & Reading
  • My Rocky Spiritual Journey

 
Need some levity? Push my Funny Button!

TO MY READERS

Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.

My Oakland Tribune columns, btw, are reprinted by permission of the Trib. With the exception of review copies of books, I do not accept ads or freebies of any kind. Click on the "Contact" button if you have questions. Enjoy!

 

DON’T MISS!

old-man-working-out-at-gym

Widowed: It’s Jon the Old Guy I Miss the Most

pandemic-shut-down-recumbent-bike

Widowed: My Husband Keeps Dying on Me

Facade and steeple of the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Michigan. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Michigan — Last Stop on My One-Woman Road Trip

Church bell tower, whitewashed church in the Greek Islands. Photo by BF Newhall

Theologian Harvey Cox: You Don’t Have to Believe to Be a Christian

MORE DON'T MISS!

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