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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!

I’m Not Going to Rant About the Election Results. Here’s Why

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

donald-trump-pointing

I’m not going to rant about the election results. The world doesn’t need another angry argument. I’m going to write about my garden. Or try to.  Read more.

Airbnb — When a Home Away From Home Gets Way Too Homey

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

It's no Airbnb, but rather a real Bed and Breakfast, cluttered but clean and cozy. Candlewyck House, Pentwater, MI. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Airbnb is supposed to be a good deal — homey and cheap. But maybe, really I’d be better off in a real bed and breakfast like this one. Read more.

The American Flag Is Flying in My Liberal, Elitist, San Francisco Bay Area Neighborhood Today. Here’s Why.

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Stars and Stripes. A man hangs the American flag on the front of his house. Photo by Barbara Newhall

‘The right wingers don’t own the American flag flag,’ I said as my husband hung the Stars and Stripes from our garage. ‘It’s my flag too.’ Read more.

MORE DON'T MISS!

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ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Inside Pentwater’s Antler Bar — A Beer Too Many

Bar, Pentwater, Michigan, with an antler for a doorknob. Photo by Barbara Newhall

I went inside the Antler Bar in Pentwater, Michigan, and there I had one too many. 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!

Father-with-two-grown-kids

Widowed and the We-Ness of Marriage

An older woman tries on dresses for her daughter's wedding day. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Mother-of-the-Bride Dress: What, Oh, What Do I Wear to My Daughter’s Wedding?

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

a bookshelf of books from many religions, including buddhism, taoism, christianity, judaism and islam. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Coleman Barks and Rumi — What a Few Lines of Poetry (and a Witch) Taught me

MORE DON'T MISS!

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