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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
Help ‘Wrestling with God’ Find Its Readers
By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment
“Wrestling with God” is a multi-faith book and a great gift for the upcoming holidays. It’s what our strife-ridden world needs right now. 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
A New Roll-Out for ‘Wrestling with God’ — Just in Time for the Holidays
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 8 Comments
Big news! Today is the day. It’s a new roll-out for my prizewinning book “Wrestling with God.” Join the celebration. Buy a copy or two! Read more.
I’m Not Going to Rant About the Election Results. Here’s Why
By Barbara Falconer Newhall Leave a Comment
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.
DON’T MISS!
Buddhist Writing — Wisdom or Chicken Shit?
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 1 Comment
Jack Kornfield and Sylvia Boorstein are two of my favorite Buddhist writers. But I don’t follow their advice entirely — I don’t meditate.
Stalking Superman
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 12 Comments
There he was. In the flesh. Tall and slender and muscled and oh-so-handsome. Sigh. It was Superman. The Man of Steel of my girlhood fantasies. My dream man. Read more.
The Cataract Chronicles: Letting the Light Into That Other Eye
By Barbara Falconer Newhall 2 Comments
The best thing about cataract surgery is everything gets so bright and clear and 3-dimensional. It’s like being in a Star Wars movie. Read more.