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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
Was My Mother Was a 1950s Tradwife?
My mother was a tradwife, a bona fide 1950s tradwife. That’s what she wanted. That’s what she got. 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
The Trouble With Poinsettias
The trouble with poinsettias is — they don’t know that Christmas is over and it’s time to make an exit. Read more.
Widowed: If I Visit His Grave, Will It Help?
I said hello to Jon and his family, and then there was nothing more to do in this graveyard. Read more.
DON’T MISS!
Widowed: I Got Caught in the Act of Crying for My Husband
I came home to what I thought was an empty house but, widowed, I got caught in the act of crying for my husband. Noisily. Read more.
Xi’An to TX and Mao to LBJ — I’ve Been Traveling and I’m Back
China, Austin, a Religion Newswriters conference — I had a great, traveling September. It started with on my birthday on September 6, which lasted only a few hours because Jon and I were on a plane to Shanghai when somewhere over the Pacific we hit the International Date Line. Read more.
The Kids Are Coming for a Visit. No Time to Write
My grown-up kids are coming for a visit this week. There will be just the three of us Peter, Christina and I. Read more.