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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
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.
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
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.
Maybe I Want a Facelift After All
Facelifts that leave your cheeks looking like you’re facing into 100-mph headwinds are not for me. Or are they? Read more.
DON’T MISS!
Gun Safety — I’m Giving Up on the Cause. Here’s Why
I give up. I’m not going to get on my soap box and plead for better gun safety laws any more. It’s up to gun advocates to get that job done..Read more.
My Big Brother Loves Me — The Cataract Chronicles Continued
When my big brother saw me without glasses for the first time in a half century, his reaction took me by surprise. Read more.
Institute of Mosaic Art — A Berkeley Spin on an Ancient Art
The Institute of Mosaic Art left its creative mark on facades all over Oakland’s Jingletown neighborhood before moving last year to Berkeley. Visitors are welcome to stop by, and on a recent afternoon there was plenty to see: mosaic lemons, mosaic limes, a mosaic bird — and a mosaic bundt cake. Read more.