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Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World
A Zen study wrapped in a memoir of destruction and healing written by an elite ultrarunner as she struggles to make it to the other side of a life-shattering injury with her sanity, and her marriage, intact
After flipping her raft days away from help on a trip down the remote Salmon River, Katie Arnold’s shattered leg tests both her spirit and her marriage for years to come. It also reignites her meditation practice and motivates her to dive into Zen in search of healing. Before the accident, Katie was an elite ultrarunner with a simmering but adequate marriage who avoided being indoors whenever possible. But who is she afterwards?
In the midst of hardship, Katie turns for support to the Zen practice she had long dabbled in. Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World is a Zen study wrapped in a memoir that tells the story of a search for stillness by a woman born for wildness. Spanning roughly two years, from shortly before the accident through the long, uncertain healing of both leg and marriage, it is a personal narrative of that tumultuous time nested inside meditations on Zen.
Having gone from a reluctant spiritualist to a Zen practitioner over the course of a decade, Katie Arnold offers unique company for those seeking nature’s exquisite highs as well as for creatives, spiritualists, and sensualists who want to slow down and examine the possibilities of a well-lived life. As the late Japanese master Shunryu Suzuki wrote, “Sometimes a flashing will come through the dark sky.” These brief flashings are enlightenment—moments when we suddenly feel as if we’re part of everything, and everything’s part of us. This book is about how to experience the flashings when they come, and about what they mean for how we live our lives.
After flipping her raft days away from help on a trip down the remote Salmon River, Katie Arnold’s shattered leg tests both her spirit and her marriage for years to come. It also reignites her meditation practice and motivates her to dive into Zen in search of healing. Before the accident, Katie was an elite ultrarunner with a simmering but adequate marriage who avoided being indoors whenever possible. But who is she afterwards?
In the midst of hardship, Katie turns for support to the Zen practice she had long dabbled in. Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World is a Zen study wrapped in a memoir that tells the story of a search for stillness by a woman born for wildness. Spanning roughly two years, from shortly before the accident through the long, uncertain healing of both leg and marriage, it is a personal narrative of that tumultuous time nested inside meditations on Zen.
Having gone from a reluctant spiritualist to a Zen practitioner over the course of a decade, Katie Arnold offers unique company for those seeking nature’s exquisite highs as well as for creatives, spiritualists, and sensualists who want to slow down and examine the possibilities of a well-lived life. As the late Japanese master Shunryu Suzuki wrote, “Sometimes a flashing will come through the dark sky.” These brief flashings are enlightenment—moments when we suddenly feel as if we’re part of everything, and everything’s part of us. This book is about how to experience the flashings when they come, and about what they mean for how we live our lives.
208 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2024
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701 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
January 1, 2025
Finished this crying at the DMV 🥲
In another life, I moved to Santa Fe at 23 and am also Katie Arnold. In this life I am 26 in Austin, but I have never related to any person/piece of literature more. I think I’ll start this book over immediately.
Edit: 8 months later I read it again. My favorite book of 2024. I still just feel as if I have never related to an author more.
In another life, I moved to Santa Fe at 23 and am also Katie Arnold. In this life I am 26 in Austin, but I have never related to any person/piece of literature more. I think I’ll start this book over immediately.
Edit: 8 months later I read it again. My favorite book of 2024. I still just feel as if I have never related to an author more.
May 17, 2024
I recommend this book for many reasons, but what sticks with me—and what might not be apparent from its title/subtitle and jacket description—is what a powerful, helpful story it is for injured athletes who may feel hopeless, angry, and depressed when their injury takes away their ability to do the activity that's their passion. The Zen insights are woven into Katie's compelling descriptive scenes and narrative arc. I think she and her publisher packaged the book to appeal to a non-runner audience, which it does, but I want to emphasize that runners (especially us aging ones who seek to make peace with our changing bodies) really should read it!
January 19, 2024
I didn’t think it was possible to match the brilliance of Running Home, but Katie did just that, while weaving her introduction to Zen into a story about overcoming adversity and finding her stride as a ultra runner. This is a magnificent novel that anyone should read and everyone will enjoy.
August 3, 2024
I don’t know how to review this book. It was an effort to read and finish, and yet I highlighted half of it as I went. I didn’t understand Katie and her thought processes or motivations many times, and then there were moments where I felt like she was speaking to my soul. Is that what zen is, all of it at once? Haha. So I can’t decide if I liked this book, but I can tell you that I’ve already told several friends about it and insights I gained from it, and I can tell that it’s going to stay with me awhile.
November 30, 2025
Full disclosure: I used to play ultimate with Katie's husband Steve back in my hey hey days of that amazing sport. I don't know Katie but I'm a huge fan now and plan to read her previous book about her dad. She's a deep thinker, and is able to express so many things I also think and have felt in relation to Buddhism and sport and life. She does it with grace and insight and all the right words, so much a pleasure to listen and think, yes! right! this! The big event is a terrible injury she suffers while just starting a 10-day rafting trip in CO, and much of the book is about recovering and what you do in your head and body with a changed reality from your usual active lifestyle. And yes, she's an elite runner, takes us through running rim-to-rim-to-rim at the Grand Canyon and winning the Leadville 100, no big deal, so definitely in a different category than I am, but I could still relate. I think non-runners and even non-athletes could get much from this; it's also about aging and adjusting to our realities therein. And the other big theme that resonated with me was her relationship, the struggles, the changing, the anger despite big love, and how she manages to make it work. We invited Katie to speak at our doctors book club and she kindly shared her time with us there. Highly recommend.
March 15, 2025
"Recovery isn’t something that will happen. It is happening… Healing isn’t a mysterious, passive process that’s happening to me, but one that I am creating. I am healing myself."
"Running is simple once again. It requires little more of me than showing up and being patient... I couldn’t go back to the relationship I’d had; I could only go forward into what it was becoming."
I think I will always love anything Katie Arnold writes. Right book, right time. 🤍
"Running is simple once again. It requires little more of me than showing up and being patient... I couldn’t go back to the relationship I’d had; I could only go forward into what it was becoming."
I think I will always love anything Katie Arnold writes. Right book, right time. 🤍
June 4, 2024
Neat read from a past Leadville champion. Describing the art of Zen left me more confused than ever before…or maybe more of a master of Zen. In fact, they are one in the same 🤝
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November 21, 2024Excellent! Thank you Carolyn
June 4, 2024
I bought this book (and her first) after hearing Katie Arnold speak. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed at how beautifully it is written. I got a little lost in some of the zen musings but I’m also new at it and feel excited to learn more. Katie tells an interesting story but is also always searching for deeper meanings in it. I loved that. Reading this has encouraged me to learn more about zen practice and continue trying to apply those insights to my own life and running.
June 18, 2024
My high review is very likely emotionally driven. This book is carrying me through my own injury which may prohibit me from any future running. This book turned me from a lingering depression and helplessness to a driven gratitude and hope. Her writing is lyrical. I feel her words in my body. It’s a book to be mulled over, with a warm beverage and the sounds of nature by your side.
July 9, 2025
I loved this book from the start all the way to the finish. Katie eloquently describes life’s movements and meaning. She has reopened my thoughts about the mysteries of life. Superb.
June 24, 2024
Lyrical and mesmerizing though I felt I resonated more with “Running Home”. I loved the zen elements but was oddly distracted by her anger with her husband early in the book. I feel like I needed more explanation on the why to ground some of the subsequent processing.
Full review to come
Full review to come
July 20, 2024
I love Katie Arnold as a writer. She is relatable to me as she runs in the mountains. I really wanted to love this book because I loved her first one so much. This one was just too much about Zen for me. While it WAS interesting to learn a little more about Zen follower's POV, I just didn't get it. I would say 75% of the book is generally about this. However, the last 25% she describes in wonderful and exciting detail, her experience running the Leadville 100 for the first time and I LOVED that. My heart raced as I read her description. That section alone was worth the time spent reading this one.
March 20, 2024
Katie Arnold has been an ultra runner all her life. However, post a rafting accident, her life was never the same. She found herself at crossroads with her destiny as a runner, spouse, and mother. She looked for ways to resurrect back to normalcy, to her state of running. And in that quest she got acquainted with the Zen artwork.
This book is not a straight memoir or a guide on meditation. It’s about finding her momentary awakenings in the phenomenal world. These serve as her secrets, probably they may work for you as well. Through her story, chances are that you may discover yourself. She refers these awakenings as flashings…probably we all get in our head. It is a way different picture from the actual world.
She posits that momentary awakenings (flashings) are happening all around us. As I further got under the skeins of the book, I understood what she was trying to put out. Yes, the book is an absolute and insightful resource on flashings with her experience with rivers, and mountains, and so on. She picks up Zen lessons/concepts with her engagement with her surroundings. Over the pages, as the book chugs ahead, she expounds the same brilliantly, in an easy-to-understand approach.
The book is segmented into four parts. Of which ‘Rivers’ is my favourite. In the flow of the river she identified a vital Zen lesson: don’t go against the current, be with the flow. Her Zen stories through rivers are of utmost significance, simple yet effective. Next lesson that almost made me cathartic was ‘the flow of the river is time’. It is going as per the speed, neither fast nor slow. In fact throughout the book drawing Zen messages and inspiration from rivers is an ecstatic feeling, getting positive vibes for life.
I was equally fascinated by the concept of Constancy in Zen – it means continuous efforts. In life anything can be achieved with a continuous process. Yes, but for that, efforts are needed every day, be it any task or activity. One of the best USPs is Zen koan, inspiring stories for awakening.
Since she has been an ultra runner, stories, events, and anecdotes from her life are centered around running. First off, I became fan of her knowing she has been a runner all her life, a feat that I could never cherished, remained in my mind...never came out. I would say that the content of the book was philosophical. The book demands patience, careful reading with focus on each word.
This book is not a straight memoir or a guide on meditation. It’s about finding her momentary awakenings in the phenomenal world. These serve as her secrets, probably they may work for you as well. Through her story, chances are that you may discover yourself. She refers these awakenings as flashings…probably we all get in our head. It is a way different picture from the actual world.
She posits that momentary awakenings (flashings) are happening all around us. As I further got under the skeins of the book, I understood what she was trying to put out. Yes, the book is an absolute and insightful resource on flashings with her experience with rivers, and mountains, and so on. She picks up Zen lessons/concepts with her engagement with her surroundings. Over the pages, as the book chugs ahead, she expounds the same brilliantly, in an easy-to-understand approach.
The book is segmented into four parts. Of which ‘Rivers’ is my favourite. In the flow of the river she identified a vital Zen lesson: don’t go against the current, be with the flow. Her Zen stories through rivers are of utmost significance, simple yet effective. Next lesson that almost made me cathartic was ‘the flow of the river is time’. It is going as per the speed, neither fast nor slow. In fact throughout the book drawing Zen messages and inspiration from rivers is an ecstatic feeling, getting positive vibes for life.
I was equally fascinated by the concept of Constancy in Zen – it means continuous efforts. In life anything can be achieved with a continuous process. Yes, but for that, efforts are needed every day, be it any task or activity. One of the best USPs is Zen koan, inspiring stories for awakening.
Since she has been an ultra runner, stories, events, and anecdotes from her life are centered around running. First off, I became fan of her knowing she has been a runner all her life, a feat that I could never cherished, remained in my mind...never came out. I would say that the content of the book was philosophical. The book demands patience, careful reading with focus on each word.
August 1, 2024
What a thoughtful, beautifully written book by Katie Arnold, a writer and runner who won the Leadville 100 mile race! I think anyone would like it, but you’ll
especially love it if you’re into Zen, meditation, running, and/or writing. A favorite passage:
“Upaya's head priest, Roshi Joan Halifax, spoke that evening about ‘continuous mistake’ — a phrase sometimes used to describe Zen practice. Like continuous effort, it refers to the things we do over and over, sometimes botching them, other times succeeding, but always learning and growing into. She said this with kindness and gentle exasperation, like ‘When will we ever learn?’ Maybe never.
Welcome to being alive.
It was like the Buddhist vow to save all sentient beings from suffering by ferrying them across a river in a raft. I loved the rafting metaphor because of how utterly impossible it was. It would take lifetime after lifetime and still you could never ever do it, you could never get every single being to the other side. But to keep practicing without concern for your guaranteed failure is in its own way a triumph. By trying and falling short, you are in fact succeeding. There's no distance between the two….
I knew that running and wildness and writing were my continuous mistakes, the ones I would keep making again and again, in some way or another, the way we all do, because we are dumb animals and also, mostly, because we are hopeful and good, and we will always keep going.”
especially love it if you’re into Zen, meditation, running, and/or writing. A favorite passage:
“Upaya's head priest, Roshi Joan Halifax, spoke that evening about ‘continuous mistake’ — a phrase sometimes used to describe Zen practice. Like continuous effort, it refers to the things we do over and over, sometimes botching them, other times succeeding, but always learning and growing into. She said this with kindness and gentle exasperation, like ‘When will we ever learn?’ Maybe never.
Welcome to being alive.
It was like the Buddhist vow to save all sentient beings from suffering by ferrying them across a river in a raft. I loved the rafting metaphor because of how utterly impossible it was. It would take lifetime after lifetime and still you could never ever do it, you could never get every single being to the other side. But to keep practicing without concern for your guaranteed failure is in its own way a triumph. By trying and falling short, you are in fact succeeding. There's no distance between the two….
I knew that running and wildness and writing were my continuous mistakes, the ones I would keep making again and again, in some way or another, the way we all do, because we are dumb animals and also, mostly, because we are hopeful and good, and we will always keep going.”
September 22, 2024
Who is a runner who can’t run? This is the Zen Koan that ultramarathoner Katie Arnold is forced to sit with after a whitewater rafting accident forces her off the trails for months (particularly unkindly, for a summer). Paradoxically, sitting ultimately turns out to be a powerful tool for improving her running. From feeling like a “house torn down to its studs, the hinges exposed, rattling in the wind”, she heals her body, her mind, and her spirit on the meditation mat.
Arnold’s broken leg ultimately empowers her. The experience teaches her patience, acceptance, and how to clear away some of the “residue of preconceived ideas and judgments” that colour our perception of the world around us. This allows her to act with “a clear, simple mind” (not an easy task for a writer or for anybody in this age of insistent digital input).
Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World is a manual for improving in any facet of your life by (again, paradoxically) letting go of the desire to improve and “devoting yourself to your practice thoughtfully, persistently”. Arnold shows us the tremendous power available to us if we can tap into the universe as it is (rather than as we think it is). “Each time you find yourself distracted or entranced by hypothetical scenarios, all you have to do is do the next real thing right in front of you.” The mountain will help you to climb it if you get yourself out of the way.
Arnold’s broken leg ultimately empowers her. The experience teaches her patience, acceptance, and how to clear away some of the “residue of preconceived ideas and judgments” that colour our perception of the world around us. This allows her to act with “a clear, simple mind” (not an easy task for a writer or for anybody in this age of insistent digital input).
Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World is a manual for improving in any facet of your life by (again, paradoxically) letting go of the desire to improve and “devoting yourself to your practice thoughtfully, persistently”. Arnold shows us the tremendous power available to us if we can tap into the universe as it is (rather than as we think it is). “Each time you find yourself distracted or entranced by hypothetical scenarios, all you have to do is do the next real thing right in front of you.” The mountain will help you to climb it if you get yourself out of the way.
January 5, 2026
Arnold's first book was sublime. This one, not so much. I felt on edge throughout most of it--perhaps not the desired effect in a book on Zen.
It started off (forgive me) on the wrong foot, with her account of the accident. The decisions made in its aftermath were poor in every respect, not just her personal safety but that of the entire rest of the expedition. Her lack of consideration disturbed me and set the tone for my whole reading experience; her subsequent anger and resentment did not help, nor did the overall sense of tension, which felt inconsistent with her frequent assertions that she's finding inner peace. Show and tell seemed out of sync to me. Plus there's an uncomfortable amount of (nonconsensual) exposition of her personal relationships.
And yet. Her writing is vivid, evocative, and most of all meditative: it took me a long time to read this short book because I paused frequently to reread and/or reflect. She gets a lot right, and presents Zen concepts with quite a different slant than the average lecturer. Refreshing and insightful. So even though she is (IMO) too-desperately chasing some elusive nirvana, I respect her path and am fortunate to learn from her.
Recommended for students of life.
It started off (forgive me) on the wrong foot, with her account of the accident. The decisions made in its aftermath were poor in every respect, not just her personal safety but that of the entire rest of the expedition. Her lack of consideration disturbed me and set the tone for my whole reading experience; her subsequent anger and resentment did not help, nor did the overall sense of tension, which felt inconsistent with her frequent assertions that she's finding inner peace. Show and tell seemed out of sync to me. Plus there's an uncomfortable amount of (nonconsensual) exposition of her personal relationships.
And yet. Her writing is vivid, evocative, and most of all meditative: it took me a long time to read this short book because I paused frequently to reread and/or reflect. She gets a lot right, and presents Zen concepts with quite a different slant than the average lecturer. Refreshing and insightful. So even though she is (IMO) too-desperately chasing some elusive nirvana, I respect her path and am fortunate to learn from her.
Recommended for students of life.
August 13, 2024
This book is a thoughtful and introspective memoir that details the author's journey to recover from a life-altering injury. It begins by recounting a traumatic whitewater rafting accident, which serves as a catalyst for uncovering deeper personal struggles and marital issues. The author then explores how Zen philosophy and her strong connection to nature aided her recovery, emphasizing the importance of finding beauty in everyday life. It also weaves in the issues of parenting and marriage that we all face.
I loved how this book is a little pit of everything - part adventure, part relationship, and a memoir of finding oneself in the larger world by coming to terms with life's challenges and joys. It conveys the fleeting nature of time and the value of living in the present moment according to Zen principles. It offers insights into other aspects of life, such as running, writing, motherhood, marriage, and makes the Zen philosophy more accessible and relatable.
To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://zibbymedia.com/blogs/transcri...
I loved how this book is a little pit of everything - part adventure, part relationship, and a memoir of finding oneself in the larger world by coming to terms with life's challenges and joys. It conveys the fleeting nature of time and the value of living in the present moment according to Zen principles. It offers insights into other aspects of life, such as running, writing, motherhood, marriage, and makes the Zen philosophy more accessible and relatable.
To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://zibbymedia.com/blogs/transcri...
December 24, 2024
This book highlights the beauty and art of running. How it is far more than just a sport. It’s a lifestyle, it’s a therapy, it’s a way of coping, breathing, existing. How your biggest struggles and battles can be faced by moving your feet and challenging yourself. Seeing the physical and mental obstacles that Katie faces is insane. Katie is an admirably active person, always on her feet and moving her body. So when she was forced to rest and sit due to her injury, she had to find a positive in that new lifestyle. I love seeing her turn the mundane into something beautiful too. To find your “zen” in whatever you do. That our minds and bodies are intricately connected. Zen can be sitting, as well as running or sprinting or biking or walking. Zen is where you make it. She encompasses all aspects of her life into this book. Her physical and emotional health, as well as friendships, marriage, mom life and parents doubts. It was also interesting to learn about her rafting stories and what that world is like. She is an inspiration, and one bad ass runner. She proved to herself she could do the impossible, even after a severe injury where she was told she shouldn’t run again. As Katie Arnold says, “running may hurt you, but it doesn’t hurt me. It heals me.”
“You can give into the anxiety or you can keep going. This is the secret to surviving the basement: you almost always have a choice, even when you feel like you don’t.”
“Running is a kind of alchemy; you put what’s in your heart and mind into your running and it transforms your energy, a kind of wild release - some days, almost, but not quite, the next best thing to euphoria.”
“I have to believe in complete healing. I have to surround myself with people who believe it, too. I have to see it and feel it and live it. I have to train my mind to heal my body.”
“You can give into the anxiety or you can keep going. This is the secret to surviving the basement: you almost always have a choice, even when you feel like you don’t.”
“Running is a kind of alchemy; you put what’s in your heart and mind into your running and it transforms your energy, a kind of wild release - some days, almost, but not quite, the next best thing to euphoria.”
“I have to believe in complete healing. I have to surround myself with people who believe it, too. I have to see it and feel it and live it. I have to train my mind to heal my body.”
February 12, 2025
I haven’t run more than five miles since the Chicago Marathon last October — I’m not injured, I’m just not motivated.
So I picked up this memoir by elite ultra runner Katie Arnold who broke her leg in a rafting accident, used Zen practice and meditation to help her deal with the mental impact of her injury, and then came back stronger than ever barely two years later to win the grueling Leadville 100 in 2018. Yes, wholly inspiring.
I learned once again — for about the 2,329th time, it truly is a lesson you have to learn over and over and over again — not to take running for granted. It can be gone in an instant.
Arnold is an astute writer, and tells her story with passion and profound insight. Banish the thought that she’s a good writer “for a runner.” She’s an amazingly talented writer, period. (I found out after finishing this she’s regularly teaches at writing retreats — which makes sense.)
If you’re looking for a great running book to inspire you to get your ass of the couch, this is it. No excuses!
So I picked up this memoir by elite ultra runner Katie Arnold who broke her leg in a rafting accident, used Zen practice and meditation to help her deal with the mental impact of her injury, and then came back stronger than ever barely two years later to win the grueling Leadville 100 in 2018. Yes, wholly inspiring.
I learned once again — for about the 2,329th time, it truly is a lesson you have to learn over and over and over again — not to take running for granted. It can be gone in an instant.
Arnold is an astute writer, and tells her story with passion and profound insight. Banish the thought that she’s a good writer “for a runner.” She’s an amazingly talented writer, period. (I found out after finishing this she’s regularly teaches at writing retreats — which makes sense.)
If you’re looking for a great running book to inspire you to get your ass of the couch, this is it. No excuses!
April 24, 2025
I think I found my new favorite book, all the stars! If I had to describe this book in one work it would be FLOW… flow of life, and rivers, and mountain trails. Or maybe Zen… the whole book had a Zen-like stillness that made the whole book feel like a moving meditation.
Katie has a deep connection to the natural world and a passion for ultrarunning and adventures. I love how she wove the external adventure with the internal: motherhood, marriage, the challenges and joys of daily life.
Her words made me want to get outside, breathe more deeply, and notice the small fleeting moments that usually pass me by.
“In between the exhilarating highs were all the regular moments— gorgeous, ordinary moments, gorgeous often because they were so ordinary.”
“Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World”
“You have to be fluid, not forceful. If you fight it, you’ll never win. You have to flow.”
Katie has a deep connection to the natural world and a passion for ultrarunning and adventures. I love how she wove the external adventure with the internal: motherhood, marriage, the challenges and joys of daily life.
Her words made me want to get outside, breathe more deeply, and notice the small fleeting moments that usually pass me by.
“In between the exhilarating highs were all the regular moments— gorgeous, ordinary moments, gorgeous often because they were so ordinary.”
“Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World”
“You have to be fluid, not forceful. If you fight it, you’ll never win. You have to flow.”
April 21, 2024
I loved Running Home and am a huge fan of Katie’s writing. I devoured the first half of Brief Flashings in a day and have now resolved to pace myself because I don’t want it to end, though I know I will return to it again when I do. Katie writes with so much humility and wisdom all at once. She has woven a story out of so much life experience — taking us along on some real wild outdoor adventures as well as her examinations of time spent in forced stillness — that though specific to her life resonate as deeply universal to the human experience. Some deeply relatable truths about marriage and parenting, womanhood, selfhood…
May 27, 2024
So many dog earred pages.
"...two words in black Sharpie on the back of my left hand: SMILE and FLOW. I want to move with the mountains and to remember the joy I feel when I run - the true reason I run."
"e's in the middle of his life. Just as I'm in th emiddle of mine. And we're in the middle of ours, together: love, conflict, laughter - all of it always entertwined."
In running as in daily life: "Make sincere effort for the good. Be yourself. Let go. Keep going."
In mountain biking as in relationships: "You need momentum, not brute strength, to move downstream. You have to be fluid, not forceful. If you fight it, you'll never win. You have to flow."
"...two words in black Sharpie on the back of my left hand: SMILE and FLOW. I want to move with the mountains and to remember the joy I feel when I run - the true reason I run."
"e's in the middle of his life. Just as I'm in th emiddle of mine. And we're in the middle of ours, together: love, conflict, laughter - all of it always entertwined."
In running as in daily life: "Make sincere effort for the good. Be yourself. Let go. Keep going."
In mountain biking as in relationships: "You need momentum, not brute strength, to move downstream. You have to be fluid, not forceful. If you fight it, you'll never win. You have to flow."
January 10, 2025
Katie Arnold offers a deeper dive into the interrelationship of Zen, writing, and running as she overcomes a major injury and achieves victory at the Leadville Trail 100-mile run. But this is much more than a tale of how to meditate, train, and win. The major rafting accident that nearly ended her running career placed tremendous stress on her marriage, she was raising two young daughters, and she continued to deal with the anxiety seen in her previous “Running Home”. Her writing style is clear and succinct, drawing the reader deeply into her psyche. Distance runners in particular will be entranced by this book. A memorable read.
June 11, 2024
Definitely recommend to runners, not sure if for most non-runners unless they are into other athletic pursuits that require the kind of persistence and patience and acceptance that running (and injuries) do.
Transformative and powerful story, told in a low-key way step by step on the journey from injury to a triumphant return to sport and to a new way of being in the world. I really appreciated the linear-lite structure here - a little more forward momentum than the author's previous memoir to push the reader through this book, but still seeing experiences from different angles in time.
Transformative and powerful story, told in a low-key way step by step on the journey from injury to a triumphant return to sport and to a new way of being in the world. I really appreciated the linear-lite structure here - a little more forward momentum than the author's previous memoir to push the reader through this book, but still seeing experiences from different angles in time.
June 5, 2024
A great read, beautifully written, a love story really to her husband, but also to herself. Something we should all do, although us non writers might not do it as well. But I enjoyed and related to so much of her processing on facing change and accepting what is in front of us. A lesson on listening to the stillness and brief flashings all around us. Thru love and jobs and children we are still 14, 25, 46…. I loved this book.
July 8, 2024
"Beast mode won't carry you the whole distance or last forever, and the way there is different every time. But you know it when you're in it. It's like falling in love: you can't have it always, but be very glad when you do."
That passage stood out to me big time, but by the end of the book, it was really the only one that did. Narratively I thought it was a bit all over the place. Felt like it needed more structure. 5.5/10
That passage stood out to me big time, but by the end of the book, it was really the only one that did. Narratively I thought it was a bit all over the place. Felt like it needed more structure. 5.5/10
November 8, 2024
A gem of a read! Arnold beautifully braids together Zen Buddhism, her love of the outdoors, and her own experiences and contemplations as she prepares for elite athletic endeavors. The pages turn quickly and the story flows well. I savored every detail and description she provided, writing down nuggets of insights and ideas worth pondering even after the read. What a perfect adventure and meditation!
January 24, 2025
What a wonderful read. The title is incredibly fitting, as there are little lessons sprinkled throughout the memoir. As a runner and an appreciator of zen koans, I was thrilled that my brother-in-law sent this to me in the mail. Katie's routine summits on her local peak and her return to the movement of the rivers and mountains had me in a bit of a trance. I've never taken photographs of so many pages of a book before but the passages that jumped out at me were many.
April 1, 2025
“I came to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars.”
Brief Flashings in a Phenomenal World is a beautifully written, must-read for any athlete who’s had to overcome injury. I listened to it on a 15-mile run and totally got lost in her vivid, descriptive storytelling. It’s reflective and a little surreal in the best way, perfect for zoning out and letting your mind wander. Looking forward to reading her other book!
Brief Flashings in a Phenomenal World is a beautifully written, must-read for any athlete who’s had to overcome injury. I listened to it on a 15-mile run and totally got lost in her vivid, descriptive storytelling. It’s reflective and a little surreal in the best way, perfect for zoning out and letting your mind wander. Looking forward to reading her other book!
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