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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
Bob Woodward’s Sad and Dangerous Friendship (Journalism Students Take Note)
An essay about Bob Woodward’s sad and dangerous professional friendship could be required reading for journalism students. 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
Will I Still Be Loveable When I’ve Lost All My Marbles?
Ten years from now, when I’ve lost some — all? — of my marbles, will I still be loveable? Will I even be me? Read more.
A 1970s Counterculture Bash at Zodiac News Service. Were You There?
It was a 1970s counterculture bash at Zodiac News Service. If you were there, pls help ID these party-goer pix. (Be patient. Lots of photos to upload!) Read more.
DON’T MISS!
San Juan Islands Flora: Or, I Cling, Therefore I Am
We cling. We cling to stuff. We cling to moments in time. On vacation last summer I clung to the verdant San Juan Islands flora. Read more.
Author Don Lattin: Americans Are More Thoughtful About Religion Than We Think
Religion writer Don Lattin says there’s more to religion in America than atheists vs. fundamentalists. The real story is less alarming and much more interesting. Read more.
Isaiah and the Of-Courseness of God
Something is going on out there. Of course it is. It’s common sense. How else could things be, says Isaiah. Read more.