Already home : a topography of spirit and place / Barbara Gates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gates, Barbara, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gates, Barbara, 1946---Homes and haunts.

Gates, Barbara.

Gates, Barbara, 1946-.

Berkeley (Calif.)--Biography.

Berkeley (Calif.).

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xxii, 247 pages : map ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Shambhala Publications : Distributed in the U.S. by Random House, 2003.

Summary:

This powerfully moving memoir explores the connections between local history, the environment, the body, and the spirit. Intertwining themes of love and family, home and homelessness, neighborhood and lost wilderness, Barbara Gates takes the reader on a journey of personal discovery that artfully bridges the inner and outer worlds of experience. Prompted by a diagnosis of breast cancer and the accompanying recognition of mortality, Gates follows an intuition that her own life is simply an expression of the changing terrain. She researches far-ranging elements of her Berkeley, California, surroundings: the geological history of the Bay and hills, the history of her house and neighborhood, and the shellmound home of Native Americans who inhabited her area five thousand years ago. Encounters with a homeless woman who sleeps in her car, a rat in her refrigerator, and other adventures alternate with explorations of the area and its history. Gates seeks out original shorelines long since changed by landfill, original creeks that have been run into sewers, and diverse local wildlife now at risk from the pollution of industry and traffic. Looking through the lens of Buddhist mindfulness practice, Gates inspires readers to take a big view of where we live -- one that includes the past and the future. She helps us to appreciate the heartache and grace of daily life and to find for ourselves that at any moment we might realize that we are already home.

Contents:

Part 1 Running: Escaping What's Here and Now

1. On the Run 3

2. Circling the Yard 12

Dawn Redwood 22

Part 2 Stopping: Here and Now Is All We've Got

3. Take More Risks 27

4. Nocturnal Mind 35

5. Mama Raccoon 40

Mother Mammal 48

Part 3 Looking: Inhabiting the Uninhabitable

6. No Inner/No Outer 53

7. Skunk Practice 61

8. Homeless: Through the Fence 70

9. Skunk Practice: Through Deep Time 77

10. Homeless: In the Street 88

11. Skunk Practice: In the Industrial Zone 97

12. Homeless: In the Yard 107

13. On Inhabiting 116

Geology 121

Part 4 Seeing: Letting Go of Hope

14. Vital Statistics: Exhaustion 125

15. Homeless: An Interlude with Dogs 136

16. Vital Statistics: Safety 143

17. Homeless: A Second Interlude with Dogs 153

18. Vital Statistics: Turning to the Fathers 159

19. Homeless and Home: With the Grandmothers 164

Bay and Creeks 174

Part 5 Settling: Before and Beneath

20. Beneath the Pavement 179

21. Shellmound: Original Use: Home 189

22. Shellmound Mind: Dump and Cemetery 197

23. Owner? Guardian? 209

Epilogue: Already Home 225.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-245).

ISBN:

1570624909

OCLC:

50638480