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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
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My Rocky Spiritual Journey

You don't have to be a big believer to find something interesting to read here . . . You'll find excerpts from the spiritual journeys of people I've met on the religion beat as well as reports of my own fraught encounters with religion and spirituality . . . as well as updates on my book, "Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith," from Patheos Press.

GodsBigBlog: Dancer Savitri Hari — God in the Lowly Things

May 4, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

Savitri Hari finds the sacred in the lowly things. Savitri grew up in a Hindu family in a village in South India. “We children used to gather cow dung for a special holiday. We rolled the cow dung into a ball and drew mandala designs on it with rice flour.”

GodsBigBlog: Native American Tori Isner — Want to Find Holy? Go Look at a Rock

April 10, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments

Army vet Tori Isner traces her roots to the Eastern Band of Cherokee of North Carolina. She’s an adopted Lakota Sioux who currently lives in Texas. “Go look at the ocean. That’s Creator. That’s beauty.”

Simone Weil on Prayer — First, Pay Attention. Book Openers

April 6, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment

retablo-chimayo-joseph

Simone Weil’s life was a short one, but her startling insights into the nature of God and God’s relationship to humanity pertain today.  Read more.

Geoff Machin — We Go Looking for God, When We Could Be Having a Beer

February 27, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment

Geoff Machin -- science is obvious. God, not so much. The Sombrero Galaxy, NASA. NASA & STScI photo. copyright@stsci.edu

Humans are the only living things that know they exist & ask why. We’d have more fun if we didn’t ask so many questions, just go to the beach & have a beer. Read more.

Sister Barbara Hazzard on How to Pray Without Words

February 24, 2009 By Barbara Falconer Newhall 6 Comments

What is prayer anyway? I haven’t a clue. These days, when I go to pray, I often find I haven’t a thing to say to God. Every tradition I’ve come in contact with in all my years as a religion reporter and writer recommends — no, insists upon — prayer. Yet right now I don’t know how to do it. I don’t even know why to do it.

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

At the LA County Museum of Art: Van Gogh, Kandinsky and a Bump on the Head

After Barbara Falconer Newhall bumped into a glass wall, spilling her latte, a barista arrived with a mop to clean up the mess. Photo by BF Newhall

Like any normal, safety-conscious person, I was watching where my feet were about to step as I left the café at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.. I did not see the – tastefully faint – safety strip in the glass wall. Whack! My forehead hit the glass. Wham! The back of my hand hit the glass. Bam! My knee hit the glass. Splash! My latte crashed to the floor. Read more.

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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.

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DON’T MISS!

detail of pastel mosaic on facade of a building in Jingletown, Oakland, CA, showing body of dog wrapped around corner of building. Photo by BF Newhall

Institute of Mosaic Art — A Berkeley Spin on an Ancient Art

Tori Isner, Poet: ‘You Are a Vehicle for Spirit’

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TV or Not TV: The Week We Turned Off Our 1980s Go-To Screen

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Widowed: My Husband Is Missing Out — On the Sight of Two Galaxies Dancing in Space

MORE DON'T MISS!

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