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In the tradition of Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge, this is a moving
and
contemplative journey of discovery in which the narrator explores the
terrain
both of the streets and of the spirit, artfully bridging the
inner
and outer worlds of experience. Barbara Gates takes the reader on a
journey
that redefines the terrain of home. Her memoir explores themes of love
and family, home and homelessness, neighborhood and lost wilderness --
and in the process, she reveals how to be more at home in life.
In Already Home, Barbara Gates shares her quest to find
connection and
meaning in her urban Berkeley, California home. Triggered by a
diagnosis
of breast cancer and the accompanying recognition of mortality, she
follows
an intuition that her own life is an expression of the changing terrain
- a vast and ongoing exchange. In pursuit of this idea, she researches
far-ranging facets of her surroundings: the geological history of the
bay
and hills, the history of her house and her neighborhood including the
4,500 years of a native American shellmound. As she learns the history
of the terrain, she seeks out original shorelines, long since changed
by
landfill; original creeks that have been culverted and run into sewers;
and diverse expressions of life now at risk from the exhalations of
21st-century
industry and traffic.
Through the lens of Buddhism, Gates inspires readers to take
on the
vast view of the evolution of the places where they live, to see into
the
heartache and grace of daily life - to find for themselves that any
moment
can open up to reveal that we are already home.
Reviews
Read an excerpt from the book
Shambhala Publications interview with
Barbara
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