Natalie Goldberg: The Great Spring,  Shambala, Boulder/USA, 9781611803167, hardback

Natalie Goldberg was recommended to me by a dear friend from my publishing days; I had never heard of her before or read anything by her.    “Writing down the bones” is her bestselling book on writing and creativity.  Natalie herself has been writing, painting, practicing Zen and teaching for many years living in Northern New Mexico but travelling the world as a student and teacher. 

“The Great Spring” is a brilliant collection of her essays about Writing, Zen and Zigzagging around the world and through life.  I was fascinated by her great spirit, wisdom, sense of humor and honesty when reading these essays over a period of three weeks, finding some of her experiences utterly thought provoking and others not speaking to me at all.  I admire people who ground their lives in daily Zen practice but it would not be my path. The book is divided into 5 sections: Searching, Wandering, Zigzagging, Losing and Leaping.   All essays are superbly written as one might expect of such a fine writing teacher:  whether it is her visiting Larry McMurty’s Texan rare books town (spoiler alarm: weird place!), her narration of loving memories of her Zen teacher who had passed away, her Zen practices, travelling in Japan, visiting Bob Dylan’s birthplace, losing a dear friend or trying to connect to a life in Palo Alto and the Dot.com crowd where her partner had launched a startup. 

What resonated with me the deepest was her discovery over the years that no matter how hard or hopeless your current situation, a great spring will follow after the cold of winter.  Something to behold  in these testing times or when going through a rough patch in one’s own life.