Already Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: Shambhala January 11, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 159030165X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1590301654
• Book Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 4.8 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
San Francisco Bay Area Buddhist writer Gates unites geology, ecology and reflections on life as a mother, neighbor and cancer survivor in a memoir-meditation on the meaning of home. Gates takes readers along on walks through her gentrifying Berkeley neighborhood as she pursues the questions of who she is and where she belongs. She has left the East Coast and is slowly taking root, like her garden, in the community where she ended up for no particularly compelling reason in her early adulthood. So transplanted, her life and awareness blossom slowly, through marriage, motherhood and neighborhood. The path is not smooth: breast cancer threatens her when her daughter is only five years old, but the cancer also serves to awaken a sense of the preciousness and precariousness of everyday life. Gates is a lyrical and ambitious writer, notwithstanding the ostensibly quotidian subject of domestic life. Her book is nicely structured to develop subtly toward resolution, though sometimes the chronology of events she cites is a little confusing. Some of the widely varied threads she weaves together are especially engaging and ask for more detail: her alcoholic neighbor with family troubles and a love of dogs; her encounter, through breast cancer, with mortality, a traditional Buddhist topic. On the whole, however, this nicely written book shows the world in the grains of sand and archaic shells left on Berkeley's shore.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Review
"A reflective exploration that inspires readers to examine the meaning of home and family."— San Francisco Chronicle "Already Home contains gorgeous, intelligent and often lyric prose. Gates reunites herself and her readers with the land, with land itself."— Shambhala Sun "Gates is a modern American transcontinental settler, with a strangely settling and disturbingly unsettling tale to tell. This is a work of great courage both in the living and in the writing. Her generosity of heart shines through on every page."—Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are "Spanning geological time and the vast reaches of the human heart, here is an honest look at how we might more fully live our lives. This book is a testament to the healing power of connection with ourselves and with the world around us."—Sharon Salzberg, author of Faith and Lovingkindness "This gorgeously written memoir succeeds in proving to each of us that all of our lives are shared limitlessly with our neighbors, the garden plants, and the toxic waste dumps that surround us, that we are linked with all of those beings who have lived and died before us—if only we can summon the love and guts to see it."—Kate Wheeler, author of When Mountains Walked "The daily particularities of living in Berkeley, the exploration of its history and geology, and the venturing forth into the great mysteries and uncertainties of life, love, and time is done with equal honesty, ease, and wisdom."—Malcolm Margolin, author of The Ohlone Way "As if Thoreau moved his cabin to your neighborhood street corner, Already Home is a gorgeous and tender reminder to honor the life around you."—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry "For all readers regardless of background, this book can be a compelling reminder to look around more closely at the world we call our home." —Contra Costa Times "Gates is a lyrical and ambitious writer."— Publishers Weekly "This is the sort of book one is homesick for after finishing it. Honest, searching, and as engrossing as a mystery, it pulled me onward. It's a marvelous meditation on how the fear of change and morality has led us to destroy in the name of preserving."—Annie Gottlieb, author of Do You Believe in Magic? and The Cube: Keep the Secret "The cofounder and coeditor of the Inquiring Mind provides a thoughtful, elegantly written exploration of the boundary between self and place."— Yoga Journal "This book shows us the way to find a deeper connection to our family, our neighborhood, and ultimately, all that lives. It inspires us to stop, to look, to see our unique place in a world that is constantly changing, to discover the true meaning of home."—Howard Cutler, M.D., coauthor with the Dalai Lama of The Art of Happiness

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Already Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place (Hardcover) All too easily the spiritual path is perceived as an inner experience that unfolds under certain conditions- by an alter, on the top of a mountain, with a teacher. This book was a passionate wake-up call- one that had me walk outside and take my neighborhood and world in with fresh eyes. In-so-doing, my spirit felt enlivened and enlarged. Barbara Gates writes with a revealing power of observation and an innate appreciation of the mystery, pain and beauty within and around us. Through her eyes, we learn how to deepen our attention, and discover the way our being, our very reality, is shaped by our biological context, our culture, our web of relationships. For anyone who seeks to live and love more fully, this book is a gift to the soul.