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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
My Mother’s Writing Desk Is Not My Writing Desk. Here’s Why
Being in the same room with my mother’s writing desk is like being in the same room with my mother, which is why her desk isn’t in my writing room. 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: Did My Husband Know I Loved Him?
We were not gushy, Jon and I, and that was fine with me. Widowed now, I’ve been wondering, was I too stingy with my affections? Did my husband know I loved him? Read more.
The Human Need to Name Things — While Standing in a Patch of Weeds
We can’t help ourselves. We like to name things. We have a human need to name things, including the colors of the weeds in a weed patch. Read more.
DON’T MISS!
Oakland’s Jingletown: Arts, Crafts, Cool Kitsch — And Cookies
It was a lovely afternoon for wandering in and out of artists’ studios in Jingletown, Oakland, California’s vibrant, up-and-coming arts neighborhood, earlier this month. More than a dozen neighborhood artists had opened their doors for the annual East Bay Open Studios. Read more.
I Miss My Friends. But I Miss My Acquaintances More — Sheltering at Home Week 5
I miss my acquaintances. I miss the shopkeepers, the women in my Zumba class, the friends of friends, all the people who know me, but don’t know my name. Read more.
A Case of the Human Condition: My (Awesome) Zumba Body
Too much flesh here. Too much skin there. But I can Zumba. Read more.