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Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations
"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on—and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end."
—Richard Wagamese, Embers
In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush—sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality—concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted. Within these pages, readers will find hard-won and concrete wisdom on how to feel the joy in the everyday things. Wagamese does not seek to be a teacher or guru, but these observations made along his own journey to become, as he says, "a spiritual bad-ass," make inspiring reading.
—Richard Wagamese, Embers
In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush—sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality—concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted. Within these pages, readers will find hard-won and concrete wisdom on how to feel the joy in the everyday things. Wagamese does not seek to be a teacher or guru, but these observations made along his own journey to become, as he says, "a spiritual bad-ass," make inspiring reading.
176 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 29, 2016
332 people are currently reading
4145 people want to read
About the author
Richard Wagamese
26 books1,573 followersRichard Wagamese was one of Canada's foremost Native authors and storytellers. He worked as a professional writer since 1979. He was a newspaper columnist and reporter, radio and television broadcaster and producer, documentary producer and the author of twelve titles from major Canadian publishers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 528 reviews
April 6, 2022
Beautiful writing full of such meaning reminded me of the writing found in the two novels I have read so far by Richard Wagamese. This is not a novel, though, but a collection of meditations that emanated from his morning exercise of “ Ojibway ceremony, ritual and protocol “
Embers - “heart songs, spirit songs “ which become “honor songs “ as he shares them with us . How beautiful is that?
In multiple sections , he writes of
“Stillness“ and the beauty of silence . The quiet when shoveling snow , “making a clear path to your home where your dreams reside. “Harmony” reminding us to “walk gently on the earth and do each other no harm “ And my heart was so touched by “On my own, in the country of my people… where stories are nurtured within me among the cliff and stone and bush and water. And “I don’t want to touch you skin to skin, I want to touch you deeply beneath the surface where our real stories lie…” So much wisdom and food for thought in these chapters as well as those on Trust, Reverence, Persistence, Gratitude, and Joy.
I listened to the audiobook which was wonderfully narrated by Christian Baskous.
Embers - “heart songs, spirit songs “ which become “honor songs “ as he shares them with us . How beautiful is that?
In multiple sections , he writes of
“Stillness“ and the beauty of silence . The quiet when shoveling snow , “making a clear path to your home where your dreams reside. “Harmony” reminding us to “walk gently on the earth and do each other no harm “ And my heart was so touched by “On my own, in the country of my people… where stories are nurtured within me among the cliff and stone and bush and water. And “I don’t want to touch you skin to skin, I want to touch you deeply beneath the surface where our real stories lie…” So much wisdom and food for thought in these chapters as well as those on Trust, Reverence, Persistence, Gratitude, and Joy.
I listened to the audiobook which was wonderfully narrated by Christian Baskous.
May 11, 2022
Beautiful. Peaceful. The nourishing benefits of silence, solitude. Renewing of the spirit. I could go on, but this book, and others written by this too soon gone, needs to be experienced by each reader. I will say that with everything going on in the world, my own country, terrible distressing things, I so needed this book. I have now taken to listening to this nightly. My own form of meditation,
falling sleep to these hopeful and beautiful passages.
falling sleep to these hopeful and beautiful passages.
April 28, 2022
5 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on—and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end."
Stillness
Harmony
Trust
Reverence
Persistence
Gratitude
Joy
Wonderful on audio with Christian Baskous narrating, I’m already listening to them over again. Seven great conversations, meditations, and wisdom to begin or end your day which you can glean new insight from on each repeat.
"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on—and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end."
Stillness
Harmony
Trust
Reverence
Persistence
Gratitude
Joy
Wonderful on audio with Christian Baskous narrating, I’m already listening to them over again. Seven great conversations, meditations, and wisdom to begin or end your day which you can glean new insight from on each repeat.
August 2, 2024
EMBERS: ONE OJIBWAY'S MEDITATIONS by Richard Wagamese has a beautiful cover and full page gorgeous coloured photos. The paperback book of 176 pages feels so smooth, lovely and elegant. Holding this beautiful book in my hands while reading gives me a peaceful serene feeling.
EMBERS is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of stillness, harmony, trust, reverence, persistence, gratitude and joy.
Of the many meaningful and thought provoking words, sentences, paragraphs and dialogues in this book of meditations, I have chosen a few to share here.
"THERE IS SUCH A POWERFUL eloquence in silence. True genius is knowing when to say nothing, to allow the experience, the moment itself, to carry the message, to say what needs to be said. Words are less important, less effective than feeling. When you can sit in perfect silence with someone, you truly know how to communicate."
"walk gently
ON THE EARTH
and do each other
NO HARM"
"FOG DRIFTS ACROSS the harbour the way a cat slinks across a room, and in that jaw-dropping silence are mystery and elegance and power."
"A GIFT
IS NOT
a gift
UNTIL IT IS
shared"
"KEEP
WHAT'S
true
IN FRONT
OF YOU"
"ME: What is the point of prayer and meditation?
OLD WOMAN: To bring you closer to the Great Mystery.
ME: So I can understand it?
OLD WOMAN: No. So you can participate in it.
***
I grew up spiritually after that."
"Be thankful, offer prayers of gratitude for the blessings already in your life, whether health, prosperity or productivity, and more blessings will come."
The following quote is taken from Richard Wagamese's Acknowledgements.
"WE CARRY THE embers of all the things that burned and raged in us. Pains and sorrows, to be sure, but also triumphs, joys, victories and moments of clear-eyed vision. People give us those. People cause flames to rise in our hearts and minds and spirits, and life would not be life without them. My journey has been blessed by folks who have stuck around until the miracle happened and I could begin to become the person I was created to be."
On the back cover
"Bring these words into your life. Feel them. Sit with them. Use them."
RICHARD WAGAMESE is one of Canada's foremost First Nations authors and storytellers. He is the author of thirteen books including INDIAN HORSE ( Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), the People's Choice winner in the 2013 Canada Reads competition. He holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from Thompson Rivers University and Lakehead University.
EMBERS is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of stillness, harmony, trust, reverence, persistence, gratitude and joy.
Of the many meaningful and thought provoking words, sentences, paragraphs and dialogues in this book of meditations, I have chosen a few to share here.
"THERE IS SUCH A POWERFUL eloquence in silence. True genius is knowing when to say nothing, to allow the experience, the moment itself, to carry the message, to say what needs to be said. Words are less important, less effective than feeling. When you can sit in perfect silence with someone, you truly know how to communicate."
"walk gently
ON THE EARTH
and do each other
NO HARM"
"FOG DRIFTS ACROSS the harbour the way a cat slinks across a room, and in that jaw-dropping silence are mystery and elegance and power."
"A GIFT
IS NOT
a gift
UNTIL IT IS
shared"
"KEEP
WHAT'S
true
IN FRONT
OF YOU"
"ME: What is the point of prayer and meditation?
OLD WOMAN: To bring you closer to the Great Mystery.
ME: So I can understand it?
OLD WOMAN: No. So you can participate in it.
***
I grew up spiritually after that."
"Be thankful, offer prayers of gratitude for the blessings already in your life, whether health, prosperity or productivity, and more blessings will come."
The following quote is taken from Richard Wagamese's Acknowledgements.
"WE CARRY THE embers of all the things that burned and raged in us. Pains and sorrows, to be sure, but also triumphs, joys, victories and moments of clear-eyed vision. People give us those. People cause flames to rise in our hearts and minds and spirits, and life would not be life without them. My journey has been blessed by folks who have stuck around until the miracle happened and I could begin to become the person I was created to be."
On the back cover
"Bring these words into your life. Feel them. Sit with them. Use them."
RICHARD WAGAMESE is one of Canada's foremost First Nations authors and storytellers. He is the author of thirteen books including INDIAN HORSE ( Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), the People's Choice winner in the 2013 Canada Reads competition. He holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from Thompson Rivers University and Lakehead University.
January 12, 2023
The words in this book are embers from the tribal fires that used to burn in our villages. They are embers from the spiritual fires burning in the hearts, minds and souls of great writers on healing and love. They are embers from every story I have ever heard. They are embers from all the relationships that have sustained and defined me. They are heart songs. They are spirit songs. And, shared with you, they become honour songs for the ritual ways that spawned them. Bring these words into your life. Feel them. Sit with them. Use them. For this is the morning, excellent and fair…
As dawn broke every morning, the late Ojibway author Richard Wagamese would light a candle, burn the four medicines (sage, cedar, sweetgrass, and tobacco), read widely from global spiritual traditions, and take some solitary time to meditate upon those readings; eventually journaling his learnings before getting down to the work of writing that was his “life and passion and career”. Collected here as Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations, the learnings are grouped into several categories (Stillness, Harmony, Trust, etc.), with just one or two passages per page and many beautiful (stock) photographs. There is identifiable truth on every page of this collection — these are writings that speak soul to soul — and if I had one small complaint, it would be that grouping the meditations by category had the slightest feeling of repetition, but ultimately, truths glimpsed by slightly different angles are still truths and a gift to the reader. This is a collection I will return to again and again and my soul cannot give fewer than five stars. I could have shared something from every page, but here are a few samples:
Stillness
In this waking world, I am awakened. In this easing of shadow, I reclaim the light. I am not alone here. I sit with my ancestors, singing this day into being — and I am made more.
Harmony
It is love that brings us all together. This human family we are part of, this singular voice that is the accumulation of all voices raised together in praise of all Creation, this one heartbeat, this one drum, this one immaculate love that put us here together so that we could learn its primary teaching — that love is the energy of Creation, that it takes love to create love.
Reverence
There are times in your life you are flung into an undiscovered country of being, a place beyond time and tide and detail, the full magical breath of you heaving with the indescribable joy of being, and you realize then that parts of you exist in exile and completeness is journeying to bring them home.
Joy
I’m not here in this life to be well balanced or admired. I’m here to be an oddball, eccentric, different, wildly imaginative, creative, daring, curious, inventive and even a tad strange at times. I’m here to pray and chant and meditate and sing and find Creator in a blues riff, a sunrise, a touch or the laughter of children. I’m here to discover ME in all of that. I’m here to add clunky, chunky and funky bits of me to the swirls and swagger and churn of life and living. It demands I be authentic. So when you look out at the world, that’s me dancing in the fields…
From sharing his processes to reaching out a hand in shared humanity to even those who have hurt him and his people, Wagamese was a writer of uncommon generosity. My soul wants to be dancing in the fields by his side — Dance, dang it, that's what feet are for! — unreservedly the highest recommendation.
November 17, 2021
’We approach our lives on different trajectories, each of us spinning in our own separate, shining orbits. What gives this life its resonance is when those trajectories cross and we become engaged with each other, for as long or as fleetingly as we do. There's a shared energy then, and it can feel as though the whole universe is in the process of coming together. I live for those times. No one is truly ever "just passing through." Every encounter has within it the power of enchantment, if we're willing to look for it.’
This past June I was introduced to Richard Wagamese when I read his Medicine Walk, and when I saw this relatively short Audible ‘listen’ this morning, I reached for it, knowing that my last read of his was profoundly moving, I began listening to these contemplative musings.
’It is love itself that brings us all together. As human family we are part of, this singular voice that is the accumulation of all voices raised together in praise of all Creation, this one heartbeat, this one drum, this one immaculate love that put us here together--so that we could learn it’s primary teaching, that love is the energy of creation, that it takes love to create love.’
In seven sections, chapters, Wagamese shares his wisdom on a variety of connected themes, including Gratitude, Harmony, Stillness, Joy, Persistence, Reverence and Trust. Thoughts on our connection to our planet, the earth and all that lives and grows on it, as well as the creative side of life, imagination and inspiration.
’There is such a powerful eloquence in silence. True genius is knowing when to say nothing, to allow the experience, the moment itself to carry the message to say what needs to be said. Words are less important, less effective than feeling. When you can sit in perfect silence with someone, you truly know how to communicate.’
’Spirituality isn’t found in your head, it’s found in your heart. It isn’t found in big important sounding words, or long speeches, it’s found in silence. If you travel with your heart and your quiet, you’ll find the way to spiritual.’
I don’t have a physical copy, but I believe that it comes with illustrations which would add even more beauty. Still, listening to this was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours as the morning light was beginning to appear, but I’m still thinking about this one, this last of his books published before his passing, and savoring being lost in his words.
Read
August 14, 2017A meditative read, but not one I can rate.
I read this over a few months, here and there. Sometimes it resonated, sometimes it didn't. It really depended on the day. Worth a perusal, for sure, as I love love love Wagamese's writing; but this book is too personal for me to actually attach a star-rating to. It just doesn't feel right to do it.
I read this over a few months, here and there. Sometimes it resonated, sometimes it didn't. It really depended on the day. Worth a perusal, for sure, as I love love love Wagamese's writing; but this book is too personal for me to actually attach a star-rating to. It just doesn't feel right to do it.
March 7, 2017
Unlike most people who have written reviews about Embers, I dislike the photographs that were used in this book. To me, they are far too slick, and seem like stock photos that you would see on motivational posters and PowerPoint presentations. The writings and meditations are wonderful and original, and I wish the photos were as unique. That said, I loved the book and will be purchasing a copy that I can refer back to again and again. Wagamese's fiction has a comfortable, easy style (even when the subject matter is anything but easy), and his meditations and thoughts on life are just as familiar. I was constantly enthralled by the rational, yet emotional words; humour, hope, and love are evident on every page.
March 14, 2024
I absolutely loved Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations. Reading it once however is not enough. While I am not usually one to reread books, this is a book I want to keep close beside me to read again and again for daily inspiration. It is that jam packed full of wisdom and consciousness and I am confident that reading only four lines will have a positive impact on my day. Every line in the book is filled with gratitude and love - the absolute only way to live life.
My introduction to Richard Wagamese was back in 2011. I started with his non-fiction works. I first read One Native Life published in 2008, then One Story, One Song, published in 2011, the latter book being a favourite. It too is lyrical and meditative and provides valuable life lessons. I think Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations published in 2016 might even top it. You can palpably feel Wagamese's growth over this time frame - in his writing and in his increased silence and stillness and higher level of consciousness. His wisdom and wholeheartedness is staggering.
The physical details of Embers, as a book are also special. It is published on glossy paper and has wonderful photographs and inspiring artwork accompanying and enhancing the author’s words, unlike all previous publications. It is truly a gift to be cherished and repeatedly referred to - a gift for yourself and to give to other people in your life.
The book is divided into the 7 Sections. Just a quick read through these Section Titles listed below will hopefully give you an idea of the treat you and other readers are in for.
Stillness…Harmony…Trust…Reverence…Persistance…Gratitude…Joy
Embers is a wonderful visual feast for the eyes. It is also inspiring and touching for the mind, heart and soul.
What a great legacy for Richard Wagamese to leave such a special part of himself behind for us to be guided by and remind us of his teachings. Thank you for everything Richard. You were such a wonderful human being and writer. May you rest in peace. (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017)
My 5 star ratings are scarce but Embers: An Objiway’s Meditations deserves nothing less and maybe more.
My introduction to Richard Wagamese was back in 2011. I started with his non-fiction works. I first read One Native Life published in 2008, then One Story, One Song, published in 2011, the latter book being a favourite. It too is lyrical and meditative and provides valuable life lessons. I think Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations published in 2016 might even top it. You can palpably feel Wagamese's growth over this time frame - in his writing and in his increased silence and stillness and higher level of consciousness. His wisdom and wholeheartedness is staggering.
The physical details of Embers, as a book are also special. It is published on glossy paper and has wonderful photographs and inspiring artwork accompanying and enhancing the author’s words, unlike all previous publications. It is truly a gift to be cherished and repeatedly referred to - a gift for yourself and to give to other people in your life.
The book is divided into the 7 Sections. Just a quick read through these Section Titles listed below will hopefully give you an idea of the treat you and other readers are in for.
Stillness…Harmony…Trust…Reverence…Persistance…Gratitude…Joy
Embers is a wonderful visual feast for the eyes. It is also inspiring and touching for the mind, heart and soul.
What a great legacy for Richard Wagamese to leave such a special part of himself behind for us to be guided by and remind us of his teachings. Thank you for everything Richard. You were such a wonderful human being and writer. May you rest in peace. (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017)
My 5 star ratings are scarce but Embers: An Objiway’s Meditations deserves nothing less and maybe more.
February 22, 2023
As the subtitle indicates, these are meditations and thoughts by the author, Richard Wagamese. The narration by Christian Baskous was excellent! His voice set the mood for these reflections by the author. The titles of the chapters are: Stillness, Harmony, Trust, Reverence, Persistence, Gratitude and Joy. He reflects on each of these in his musings. He has conversations with “Old Woman” and occasionally “Old Man” which were absolutely wonderful. Old Woman refers to the creator as a woman! If I had been reading this book versus listening, I would have been jotting down so many worthwhile quotes, but alas as I was listening, I just let them seep through me. I loved listening to this especially first thing in the morning, as I still lay in bed. The words washed over me and gave me a feeling of renewal!
Published: 2016
Published: 2016
January 1, 2018
Such a beautiful book. I read this shortly after the death of the author, so found myself grieving the loss of his life while celebrating this magnificent voice. I loved the wisdom of Old Woman and carry her with me during my day. "Hard things break. Soft things never do. Be like the grass. It gets stepped on and flattened but regains its shape again once the pressure passes. It is humble, accepting and soft. That is what makes its strong." Old Man's "Keep what's true in front of you. That way you won't get lost.", guides me daily. The spirit of Richard Wagamese lives on through this book. I will return to it in moments of joy and sorrow. "I've been referred to as odd before. Nowadays, I prefer to refer to myself as 'awed'. I want awe to be the greatest ongoing relationship of my life. The breaking of a day, the silence between words, the light emanating from a real conversation, and kindness, truth, love and the apparently random hand of grace; I want to remain gobsmacked by it all."
November 4, 2025
A small volume of wisdom, purpose and authenticity, well-worth contemplating.
The book is enhanced with beautiful photography.
Read in 2021, 2024 and twice in 2025.
Related Works: Stillness Speaks, One Story, One Song
Favorite Passages:
Introduction
I pick up the role Creator has asked me to play in this reality.
_________
I walk out into the world in a position of balance, ready to do what Creator asks of me that day.
The words in this book are embers from the tribal fires that used to burn in our villages. They are embers from the spiritual fires burning in the hearts, minds and souls of great writers on healing and love. They are embers from every story I have ever heard. They are embers from all the relationships that have sustained and defined me. They are heart songs. They are spirit songs. And, shared with you, they become honour songs for the ritual ways that spawned them. Bring these words into your life. Feel them. Sit with them. Use them.
Stillness
I take a little time each day to sit in silence so that I can move outward in balance into the great clamour of living.
________
I am a dreamer made real by virtue of the world touching me.
________
Meditation is not an isolated act of consciousness. It's connecting to the dream. It's being still so that the wonder of spirit can flow outward, so that the world touches me and I touch the world. It's leaving my body and my mind and becoming spirit again, whole and perfect and shining.
________
Light is frail now. Purple is the colour of the world and the day becomes a stretch of open water freckled by rain, depthless and pure. Alive. Ready for the challenge of being.
________
Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in.
________
I want to listen deeply enough that I hear everything and nothing at the same time and am made more by the enduring quality of my silence.
________
So I cultivate silence every morning. I sit in it, bask in it, wrap it around myself, and hear and feel me. Then, wherever the day take me, the people I meet are the beneficiaries of my having taken that time - they get the real me, not someone shaped and altered by the noise around me.
Harmony
We approach our lives on different trajectories, each of us spinning in our own separate, shining orbits. What gives this life its resonance is when those trajectories cross and we become engaged with each other, for as long or as fleetingly as we do. There's a shared energy then, and it can feel as though the whole universe is in the process of coming together. I live for those times. No one is truly ever "just passing through." Every encounter has within it the power of enchantment, if we're willing to look for it.
________
What brings us together cannot exist in the same time and space as what keeps us apart.
________
. . . there are days when haven is the long slow creep of light into the sky and you feel the world around you shrug itself into wakefulness, and within you comes a glow like you see at the rim of the sky above the trees, this rising up, this elevating of your spirit, your humanity to Creation one more time, and you surrender yourself to the crucial joining like you would to a current, bobbing and drifting, borne again into the realm of possibility hidden just beneath the surface of this ordinary day, its tidal muscle relentless until you open your eyes and walk into it, connected once again to who you are and who you can become.
________
We are born into a state of relationship, and our ceremonies and rituals are guides to lead us deeper into that relationship with all things. Big lesson? Relationships never end; they just change. In believing that lies the freedom to carry compassion, empathy, love, kindness and respect into and through whatever changes. We are made more by that practice.
_________
Every year, once spring has sprung, my world regains proper proportion because baseball is back. I love the central metaphor of the game - all of us helping each other to make it home.
_________
Returning is a wonderful thing when great friends are involved. Years dissolve and time is irrelevant in the light of true reunion. It means to become one again. It means to be joined. It means to be one spirit, one energy, one song. It means to be returned to the balance you find when friendships are struck - and the entryway is a hug.
_________
Ceremony - whatever brings you closer to your essential self.
Trust
Teachings come from everywhere when you open yourself to them. That's the trick of it, really. Open yourself to everything, and everything opens itself to you.
________
My job is to choose what appears. Easy to say but hard to do, to get out of the way enough to allow the energy to flow.
________
When I surrender the delivery, along with the outcome, the anxiety and the expectation, everything becomes miraculous. It's a recipe for life, really.
________
Be wordless.
________
. . . stories live in our bodies and we need to feel our fingers moving in the process of creation every day. Your hands are your interpretive tools. They bring your spirit out in words and language.
________
My life has been changed by the use of a single word - "yes."
________
Keep what's true in front of you.
________
Life is a series of passageways we choose largely on faith and a healthy dose of hope. We hope that the hallway of our choosing leads us to magic: the inexplicable, the sudden, the uncontained. Not so that we can capture it, hold it, make it our own - but just so that we can feel it, even for an instant. Feel it and know the truth that the universe itself is magic.
_________
Time is an ocean, present and eternal. We are adrift on the ocean of possibility, you and I, and the miracle is that we find each other at all. Maybe it's age that keeps me scanning the horizon, looking for you, waving, bobbing in that sustaining current, because I want to hold eternal moments closer now. We move through time and space separately, and the mystery of our meeting is time's gift to us. Swim with me now. We have no other chance.
_________
Freedom is letting go of bounds and barriers, hurling yourself into the adventures of living.
_________
Life isn't something you leave home to do. It's what you accomplish within the walls of your haven. That's what allows you to greet the world with an open heart and reach out and embrace living in all its richness, variety and staggering wonder.
_________
If you receive others as worthy, lovable, spiritual creations - perfect just they way they are - you get to see the highest possible version of who you are. You get to be that. Experience that. And you become a gift to the world.
Reverence
I've been referred to as odd before.
Nowadays, I prefer to refer to myself as "awed." I want awe to be the greatest ongoing relationship in my life. I want to move through my days floored by the magnificence and generosity of my Creator. The breaking of of a day, the silence between words, the light emanating from a real conversation, and kindness, truth, love and the apparently random hand of grace: I want to remain gobsmacked by all of it. Rendered speechless by wonder, I await the next unfolding. Peace, friends. Be awed today.
_________
You stoke the fires of creativity with humility, gratitude and awareness.
_________
Let the mystery remain a mystery.
_________
My elders say that the dream world is a reality, just as valid, just as vibrant, just as alive as the physical world. Dreams are not illusory things. They are meant to teach us, guide us. They ask us to use our intuition to interpret them. That's their biggest gift - returning us to our intuition, our highest level of thought.
_________
There are periods when you exist beyond the context of time and fact and reality. Moments when memory carries you buoyant beyond all things, and life exists as fragments and shards of being, when you see yourself as you were and will be again - sacred, whole and shining.
__________
The beginnings of wisdom is the same as its attainment: wonder.
__________
The people do not merely listen - they hear. To hear is to have a spiritual, mental, emotional or physical reaction to the words. Sometimes, at very special times, you have all four reactions and are changed forever. Share stories, fill cold nights with the warmth of your connections, your relationships; hear each other and be made more. That is the power of storytelling.
_________
To be struck by the magnificence of nature is to be returned again, in all-too-brief moments, to the innocence to which we were born. Awe. Wonder. Humility. We draw them into us and are altered forever by the unquestionable presence of Creator. All things ringing true together. If we carry that deep sense of communion back into our workaday lives, everyone we meet benefits. That is what we are here for: to remind each other of where the truth lies and the power of simple ceremony.
_________
In the deep snow moons of winter, there are stories hovering around us. They are whispered by the voices of our ancestors, told in ancient tongues, told in the hope that we will hear them. Listen. In the drape of moonbeams across a canvas of snow, the lilt of birdsong, the crackle of a fire, the smell of smudge and the echo of the heartbeats of those around us, our ancestors speak to us, call to us, summon us to the great abiding truth of stories: that simple stories, well told, are the heartbeat of the people. Past. Present. Future.
_________
What's needed are eyes that focus with the soul. What's needed are spirits open to everything. What's needed are the belief that wonder is the glue of the universe and the desire to seek more of it. Be filled with wonder.
Persistence
Me: What is the point of all this ceremony, this prayer, this damn hard work?
Old Woman: To awaken from the dream.
Me: What dream is that?
Old Woman: The illusion that what we see is all there is. That this physical world is the real one.
________
Everything is energy, so I try to let the negative pass through me, rather than holding on to it.
________
Me: What do I need to live at my best?
Old Woman: Truth and courage.
Me: Not purpose and strength?
Old Woman: Truth and courage ARE purpose and strength. They are the roots of everything powerful. Everything spiritual. When you keep your truth in front of you and have the courage to keep moving toward it, through anything that arises, you live at your best.
_________
You stand on the edge of a canyon and you shout something. The world and the universe echo you own voice back, whether you shout "Yahoo!" or "Yee-haw!" That's how echoes work. What you throw out echoes your own energy back. "I love you." "Thank you, Creator!" "I am happy!" Such a small thing to consider but such a large thing to do. Which words am I throwing out to the universe today, and what will come back to me as a result?
Shout something.
__________
Me: Tell me about love.
Old Woman: It is our only real choice.
__________
Choose. Then believe. Then act. Only you know the workings of your heart. Choose what your heart draws you to, not what your mind decides. Choose that every day until you come to believe in it. Then act our of that belief. That's how you will come to know your truth.
__________
Knowledge is not wisdom. But wisdom is knowledge in action.
_________
Our elders teach that the dream world and the real world operate on the same energy. You link them through the power of choice. Choose action and the dream moves ever closer to the real.
_________
These days, I choose to face life head-on - and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the hard times are the friction that shaves off the worn and tired bits. The more I travel head-on, the more I am shaped, and the things that no longer work or are unnecessary drop away. It's a good way to travel. I believe eventually I will wear away all resistance, until all that's left of me is light.
Gratitude
Moments of darkness only highlight that truth these days.
_________
The miracle is that we are here at all. Life itself is our greatest wonder. To simply BE is awe-inspiring.
_________
Home is the culmination of my hopes and dreams and desires. Home is a feeling in the centre of my chest of rightness, balance and harmony of the mind, body and spirit.
_________
In this way, I find peace, because the truth is that we are one body moving through time together.
Joy
I want to be unruly, live without rules. Not all of them - just the ones that restrain my curiosity, emotionality, spirituality, actuality and ability to be my authentic self. The ones that say, "Don't think, don't talk, don't feel." The ones that reduce me. The ones that tell me what a man should be. The ones that keep me chained to false narratives. I want to be unruly - to live beyond the NO and reside instead where everyone says, "Fuck, yeah!" to life and living.
__________
All we have are moments. So live them as though not one can be wasted. Inhabit them, fill them with the light of your best good intention, honour them with your full presence, find the joy, the calm, the assuredness that allows the hours and the days to take care of themselves. If we can do that, we will have lived.
_________
I am not here in this life to be well balanced or admired. I'm here to be an oddball, eccentric, different, wildly imaginative, creative, daring, curious, inventive and even a tad strange at times.
_________
And as the smoke rises, my mind empties, my heart opens, my spirit soars, and the prayer I offer allows this morning energy to enter me. I am become it - and it becomes me. I am alive.
_________
As long as poems conserve the language of old ecstasies, there is hope for art. As long as twice-told tales ring with the clarity of blunt truths or wild, knee-slapping humour, there is hope for art. As long as lines curve beyond the linear scope of our thinking and lead the eye to recognize what it has never been before, there is hope for art. Write, then. Paint. Sing. Act. Play. Raise through art the gamut of our collective humanity, our burgeoning spirit, so that Creator might see Herself in everything and smile.
__________
It occurs to me that the secret of fully being here, walking the skin of this planet, is to learn to see things as though I were looking at them for the first time, or the last. Nothing is too small then, too mundane, too usual.
Everything is wonder. Everything is magical. Everything moves my spirit . . . and I am spiritual.
__________
We're all storytellers, really. That's what we do. That is our power as human beings. Not to tell people how to think and feel and therefore know - but through our stories allow them to discover questions within themselves. Turn off your TV and your devices and talk to each other. Share stories. Be joined, transported and transformed.
The book is enhanced with beautiful photography.
Read in 2021, 2024 and twice in 2025.
Related Works: Stillness Speaks, One Story, One Song
Favorite Passages:
Introduction
I pick up the role Creator has asked me to play in this reality.
_________
I walk out into the world in a position of balance, ready to do what Creator asks of me that day.
The words in this book are embers from the tribal fires that used to burn in our villages. They are embers from the spiritual fires burning in the hearts, minds and souls of great writers on healing and love. They are embers from every story I have ever heard. They are embers from all the relationships that have sustained and defined me. They are heart songs. They are spirit songs. And, shared with you, they become honour songs for the ritual ways that spawned them. Bring these words into your life. Feel them. Sit with them. Use them.
Stillness
I take a little time each day to sit in silence so that I can move outward in balance into the great clamour of living.
________
I am a dreamer made real by virtue of the world touching me.
________
Meditation is not an isolated act of consciousness. It's connecting to the dream. It's being still so that the wonder of spirit can flow outward, so that the world touches me and I touch the world. It's leaving my body and my mind and becoming spirit again, whole and perfect and shining.
________
Light is frail now. Purple is the colour of the world and the day becomes a stretch of open water freckled by rain, depthless and pure. Alive. Ready for the challenge of being.
________
Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in.
________
I want to listen deeply enough that I hear everything and nothing at the same time and am made more by the enduring quality of my silence.
________
So I cultivate silence every morning. I sit in it, bask in it, wrap it around myself, and hear and feel me. Then, wherever the day take me, the people I meet are the beneficiaries of my having taken that time - they get the real me, not someone shaped and altered by the noise around me.
Harmony
We approach our lives on different trajectories, each of us spinning in our own separate, shining orbits. What gives this life its resonance is when those trajectories cross and we become engaged with each other, for as long or as fleetingly as we do. There's a shared energy then, and it can feel as though the whole universe is in the process of coming together. I live for those times. No one is truly ever "just passing through." Every encounter has within it the power of enchantment, if we're willing to look for it.
________
What brings us together cannot exist in the same time and space as what keeps us apart.
________
. . . there are days when haven is the long slow creep of light into the sky and you feel the world around you shrug itself into wakefulness, and within you comes a glow like you see at the rim of the sky above the trees, this rising up, this elevating of your spirit, your humanity to Creation one more time, and you surrender yourself to the crucial joining like you would to a current, bobbing and drifting, borne again into the realm of possibility hidden just beneath the surface of this ordinary day, its tidal muscle relentless until you open your eyes and walk into it, connected once again to who you are and who you can become.
________
We are born into a state of relationship, and our ceremonies and rituals are guides to lead us deeper into that relationship with all things. Big lesson? Relationships never end; they just change. In believing that lies the freedom to carry compassion, empathy, love, kindness and respect into and through whatever changes. We are made more by that practice.
_________
Every year, once spring has sprung, my world regains proper proportion because baseball is back. I love the central metaphor of the game - all of us helping each other to make it home.
_________
Returning is a wonderful thing when great friends are involved. Years dissolve and time is irrelevant in the light of true reunion. It means to become one again. It means to be joined. It means to be one spirit, one energy, one song. It means to be returned to the balance you find when friendships are struck - and the entryway is a hug.
_________
Ceremony - whatever brings you closer to your essential self.
Trust
Teachings come from everywhere when you open yourself to them. That's the trick of it, really. Open yourself to everything, and everything opens itself to you.
________
My job is to choose what appears. Easy to say but hard to do, to get out of the way enough to allow the energy to flow.
________
When I surrender the delivery, along with the outcome, the anxiety and the expectation, everything becomes miraculous. It's a recipe for life, really.
________
Be wordless.
________
. . . stories live in our bodies and we need to feel our fingers moving in the process of creation every day. Your hands are your interpretive tools. They bring your spirit out in words and language.
________
My life has been changed by the use of a single word - "yes."
________
Keep what's true in front of you.
________
Life is a series of passageways we choose largely on faith and a healthy dose of hope. We hope that the hallway of our choosing leads us to magic: the inexplicable, the sudden, the uncontained. Not so that we can capture it, hold it, make it our own - but just so that we can feel it, even for an instant. Feel it and know the truth that the universe itself is magic.
_________
Time is an ocean, present and eternal. We are adrift on the ocean of possibility, you and I, and the miracle is that we find each other at all. Maybe it's age that keeps me scanning the horizon, looking for you, waving, bobbing in that sustaining current, because I want to hold eternal moments closer now. We move through time and space separately, and the mystery of our meeting is time's gift to us. Swim with me now. We have no other chance.
_________
Freedom is letting go of bounds and barriers, hurling yourself into the adventures of living.
_________
Life isn't something you leave home to do. It's what you accomplish within the walls of your haven. That's what allows you to greet the world with an open heart and reach out and embrace living in all its richness, variety and staggering wonder.
_________
If you receive others as worthy, lovable, spiritual creations - perfect just they way they are - you get to see the highest possible version of who you are. You get to be that. Experience that. And you become a gift to the world.
Reverence
I've been referred to as odd before.
Nowadays, I prefer to refer to myself as "awed." I want awe to be the greatest ongoing relationship in my life. I want to move through my days floored by the magnificence and generosity of my Creator. The breaking of of a day, the silence between words, the light emanating from a real conversation, and kindness, truth, love and the apparently random hand of grace: I want to remain gobsmacked by all of it. Rendered speechless by wonder, I await the next unfolding. Peace, friends. Be awed today.
_________
You stoke the fires of creativity with humility, gratitude and awareness.
_________
Let the mystery remain a mystery.
_________
My elders say that the dream world is a reality, just as valid, just as vibrant, just as alive as the physical world. Dreams are not illusory things. They are meant to teach us, guide us. They ask us to use our intuition to interpret them. That's their biggest gift - returning us to our intuition, our highest level of thought.
_________
There are periods when you exist beyond the context of time and fact and reality. Moments when memory carries you buoyant beyond all things, and life exists as fragments and shards of being, when you see yourself as you were and will be again - sacred, whole and shining.
__________
The beginnings of wisdom is the same as its attainment: wonder.
__________
The people do not merely listen - they hear. To hear is to have a spiritual, mental, emotional or physical reaction to the words. Sometimes, at very special times, you have all four reactions and are changed forever. Share stories, fill cold nights with the warmth of your connections, your relationships; hear each other and be made more. That is the power of storytelling.
_________
To be struck by the magnificence of nature is to be returned again, in all-too-brief moments, to the innocence to which we were born. Awe. Wonder. Humility. We draw them into us and are altered forever by the unquestionable presence of Creator. All things ringing true together. If we carry that deep sense of communion back into our workaday lives, everyone we meet benefits. That is what we are here for: to remind each other of where the truth lies and the power of simple ceremony.
_________
In the deep snow moons of winter, there are stories hovering around us. They are whispered by the voices of our ancestors, told in ancient tongues, told in the hope that we will hear them. Listen. In the drape of moonbeams across a canvas of snow, the lilt of birdsong, the crackle of a fire, the smell of smudge and the echo of the heartbeats of those around us, our ancestors speak to us, call to us, summon us to the great abiding truth of stories: that simple stories, well told, are the heartbeat of the people. Past. Present. Future.
_________
What's needed are eyes that focus with the soul. What's needed are spirits open to everything. What's needed are the belief that wonder is the glue of the universe and the desire to seek more of it. Be filled with wonder.
Persistence
Me: What is the point of all this ceremony, this prayer, this damn hard work?
Old Woman: To awaken from the dream.
Me: What dream is that?
Old Woman: The illusion that what we see is all there is. That this physical world is the real one.
________
Everything is energy, so I try to let the negative pass through me, rather than holding on to it.
________
Me: What do I need to live at my best?
Old Woman: Truth and courage.
Me: Not purpose and strength?
Old Woman: Truth and courage ARE purpose and strength. They are the roots of everything powerful. Everything spiritual. When you keep your truth in front of you and have the courage to keep moving toward it, through anything that arises, you live at your best.
_________
You stand on the edge of a canyon and you shout something. The world and the universe echo you own voice back, whether you shout "Yahoo!" or "Yee-haw!" That's how echoes work. What you throw out echoes your own energy back. "I love you." "Thank you, Creator!" "I am happy!" Such a small thing to consider but such a large thing to do. Which words am I throwing out to the universe today, and what will come back to me as a result?
Shout something.
__________
Me: Tell me about love.
Old Woman: It is our only real choice.
__________
Choose. Then believe. Then act. Only you know the workings of your heart. Choose what your heart draws you to, not what your mind decides. Choose that every day until you come to believe in it. Then act our of that belief. That's how you will come to know your truth.
__________
Knowledge is not wisdom. But wisdom is knowledge in action.
_________
Our elders teach that the dream world and the real world operate on the same energy. You link them through the power of choice. Choose action and the dream moves ever closer to the real.
_________
These days, I choose to face life head-on - and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the hard times are the friction that shaves off the worn and tired bits. The more I travel head-on, the more I am shaped, and the things that no longer work or are unnecessary drop away. It's a good way to travel. I believe eventually I will wear away all resistance, until all that's left of me is light.
Gratitude
Moments of darkness only highlight that truth these days.
_________
The miracle is that we are here at all. Life itself is our greatest wonder. To simply BE is awe-inspiring.
_________
Home is the culmination of my hopes and dreams and desires. Home is a feeling in the centre of my chest of rightness, balance and harmony of the mind, body and spirit.
_________
In this way, I find peace, because the truth is that we are one body moving through time together.
Joy
I want to be unruly, live without rules. Not all of them - just the ones that restrain my curiosity, emotionality, spirituality, actuality and ability to be my authentic self. The ones that say, "Don't think, don't talk, don't feel." The ones that reduce me. The ones that tell me what a man should be. The ones that keep me chained to false narratives. I want to be unruly - to live beyond the NO and reside instead where everyone says, "Fuck, yeah!" to life and living.
__________
All we have are moments. So live them as though not one can be wasted. Inhabit them, fill them with the light of your best good intention, honour them with your full presence, find the joy, the calm, the assuredness that allows the hours and the days to take care of themselves. If we can do that, we will have lived.
_________
I am not here in this life to be well balanced or admired. I'm here to be an oddball, eccentric, different, wildly imaginative, creative, daring, curious, inventive and even a tad strange at times.
_________
And as the smoke rises, my mind empties, my heart opens, my spirit soars, and the prayer I offer allows this morning energy to enter me. I am become it - and it becomes me. I am alive.
_________
As long as poems conserve the language of old ecstasies, there is hope for art. As long as twice-told tales ring with the clarity of blunt truths or wild, knee-slapping humour, there is hope for art. As long as lines curve beyond the linear scope of our thinking and lead the eye to recognize what it has never been before, there is hope for art. Write, then. Paint. Sing. Act. Play. Raise through art the gamut of our collective humanity, our burgeoning spirit, so that Creator might see Herself in everything and smile.
__________
It occurs to me that the secret of fully being here, walking the skin of this planet, is to learn to see things as though I were looking at them for the first time, or the last. Nothing is too small then, too mundane, too usual.
Everything is wonder. Everything is magical. Everything moves my spirit . . . and I am spiritual.
__________
We're all storytellers, really. That's what we do. That is our power as human beings. Not to tell people how to think and feel and therefore know - but through our stories allow them to discover questions within themselves. Turn off your TV and your devices and talk to each other. Share stories. Be joined, transported and transformed.
October 28, 2022
Beautiful prose poetry and aphorisms. Meditations and wisdom, short snippets of conversations with elders. Loved it and will reread.
September 15, 2017
This precious book nourishes the reader with the patience and openness to really savor the deep wisdom RW has distilled here from his years of trial and experience
December 3, 2017
Just beautiful. Utterly beautiful. Quiet, reflective, profound. Even better than I anticipated. Wagamese remains my favorite Canadian author for precisely the magic he's able to create with words in this book.
February 8, 2017
What a gem! Speaking directly from his thoughts, experiences and culture, Richard Wagamese meditates on his life lessons - many of which were hard fought and won. Yearning to become a "spiritual bad-ass", he takes us along on his journey and shares the insight he has earned. Wagamese is eloquent and articulate and the book is illustrated with gorgeous photography.
The many meditations in Embers require thoughtful consideration and contemplation - a perfect bedside companion for the quiet times.
I checked Embers out from the library - but I must purchase my own copy. It is impossible to read and turn back in again - this is a book that must be savoured.
The many meditations in Embers require thoughtful consideration and contemplation - a perfect bedside companion for the quiet times.
I checked Embers out from the library - but I must purchase my own copy. It is impossible to read and turn back in again - this is a book that must be savoured.
February 2, 2017
https://ayearofbooksblog.com/2016/12/...
Anyone who has been following my blog this year will know that I am a big fan of Richard Wagamese. After reading The Medicine Walk, I could not wait to read more of his work including Indian Horse, Ragged Company and One Native Life. This author writes beautiful fiction that makes readers really think about important issues such as residential schools, the importance of family, homelessness and substance abuse.
The Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations is a unique book. Along with beautiful photography, Wagamese shares his own meditations and learnings from elders. Intertwined with the art and words the reader will understand the author as he shares an intimate side of himself.
It is a book to ponder on, to reread and to savour. He has been son generous to share his beautiful words and sentiments with readers. After reading through the entire book, I think that I will pick it up daily and read one page each day to concentrate on his words. It will help me to reflect on my own happiness, positive outlook and how I can start help make the world a better place.
Anyone who has been following my blog this year will know that I am a big fan of Richard Wagamese. After reading The Medicine Walk, I could not wait to read more of his work including Indian Horse, Ragged Company and One Native Life. This author writes beautiful fiction that makes readers really think about important issues such as residential schools, the importance of family, homelessness and substance abuse.
The Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations is a unique book. Along with beautiful photography, Wagamese shares his own meditations and learnings from elders. Intertwined with the art and words the reader will understand the author as he shares an intimate side of himself.
It is a book to ponder on, to reread and to savour. He has been son generous to share his beautiful words and sentiments with readers. After reading through the entire book, I think that I will pick it up daily and read one page each day to concentrate on his words. It will help me to reflect on my own happiness, positive outlook and how I can start help make the world a better place.
May 23, 2017
A short book, beautifully written and illustrated. In it the writer guides one through peaceful moments of meditation, reflecting on life and nature. It is rich in feeling and meaning.
I like to share one of his thoughts:
"Thanks for the blessings that are already present in my life
I ask for nothing
I only offer thanks.
Then in gratitude and humility
I enter the journey of each day."
Richard Wagamese will be missed by many of his followers. He passed away less than three months ago.
I like to share one of his thoughts:
"Thanks for the blessings that are already present in my life
I ask for nothing
I only offer thanks.
Then in gratitude and humility
I enter the journey of each day."
Richard Wagamese will be missed by many of his followers. He passed away less than three months ago.
January 21, 2020
I listened to the audiobook, which had amazing narration. Now, I want to buy a hard copy and read a little every night till the book is in tatters. A beautiful, inspiring book, full of wisdom.
July 10, 2022
If your heart, spirit or mind need something, this is it
January 13, 2023
I never like self-help how-to-live-your-life books. So picking this up was iffy. But I have gotten into meditation over the past year and thought this might be similar to listening to a long meditation with uplifting affirmations. I am not a woo-woo spiritual person — just stressed out with difficulty sleeping. Taking a moment to breathe and block out the noise and remembering to be kind to oneself is helpful.
This was a bit of what I thought. It’s filled with positive messages and advocates stillness, gratitude, kindness, etc. But it does go a bit more spiritual than anticipated in terms of references to “Creator.” It’s also a bit repetitive. Still, it’s not a bad read if you need to redirect your negative or chaotic thoughts. I listened to the audio so whatever photos came with the book were not part of the audio experience. Not sure whether that matters.
This was a bit of what I thought. It’s filled with positive messages and advocates stillness, gratitude, kindness, etc. But it does go a bit more spiritual than anticipated in terms of references to “Creator.” It’s also a bit repetitive. Still, it’s not a bad read if you need to redirect your negative or chaotic thoughts. I listened to the audio so whatever photos came with the book were not part of the audio experience. Not sure whether that matters.
December 14, 2020
A must read for everyone; especially during these trying times of the pandemic.
Very insightful writings, thoughts and words to live by.
Enjoyed the conversations with the Old Woman and the Old Man.
The photos were amazing and some should be printed as inspirational posters, if they are not already, to be placed in your home or in offices.
A definite keep and one to be re-read!
Very insightful writings, thoughts and words to live by.
Enjoyed the conversations with the Old Woman and the Old Man.
The photos were amazing and some should be printed as inspirational posters, if they are not already, to be placed in your home or in offices.
A definite keep and one to be re-read!
October 27, 2016
Spiritual musings from one of my favourite authors! How to live life, treat others, treat nature and treat "the Creator ". - whomever you decide that is.
All makes sense and all beautifully written. The book itself has lovely photographs to go with the just as lovely thoughts.
All makes sense and all beautifully written. The book itself has lovely photographs to go with the just as lovely thoughts.
December 13, 2018
I'm so grateful for Wagamese sharing his meditations with me. They are beautiful and profound. I need to buy this book and keep it by my bed to read a passage each morning.
July 30, 2021
These meditations are beautifully written and the artwork is extraordinary. Some of the meditations really struck me, while others didn’t resonate at all. On the whole, a very enjoyable book.
October 21, 2023
This is not a fictional story, but rather the personal meditations of author Richard Wagamese.
Guided by the teachings that are rooted in Ojibway culture, he shares with the reader how he uses these meditations as a compass to navigate life.
There is something in this book for everyone.
"Nothing from the universe grew from the outside in."
Guided by the teachings that are rooted in Ojibway culture, he shares with the reader how he uses these meditations as a compass to navigate life.
There is something in this book for everyone.
"Nothing from the universe grew from the outside in."
November 30, 2020
I've read a decent number of books on mindfulness and this blows them all away. Yes, I already knew mlst the concepts he referenced, but I didn't comprehend them like I do now. This book took me a long time to get through because I kept rewinding. I initially started by listening at 1.25 speed and then decided I needed to start over at just normal speed. But even then, I found myself rewinding to relisten to something, sometimes 3 or 4 times. It's funny as he discusses the importance of hearing things 3 times towards the end of the book (no, this isn't my third mindfulness book). He says so little and so much in such profound ways; I'm in awe of his writing. It did take a little bit for me to flow with his style, but it feels like it was the best way to tell it. I plan on buying this book, even if I have to pay full price, and that's almost never true. I have an incredible number of bookmarks in the audio version and need them in print. I also need to read this book slowly, one mini section at a time, to truly integrate its lessons.
December 9, 2018
Richard Wagamese's death was a shattering loss for all who admired his writing and his being. In addition to his novels and writings and interviews, he would share generously on his Facebook page, then fall silent, only to reappear again when his work or his demons loosened their hold for a time. He struggled with life's big questions but was always grateful for the teachings that shone a light on the rough journey. He shared his insights on Facebook, as short meditations.
Douglas & McIntyre created a beautiful book of those meditations. Embers feels good in the hand and in the heart. This is a book to keep by the bedside, to read a little at a time and let the mind absorb. The book is Richard Wagemese's final gift, a sharing of deep, inner stirrings.
Douglas & McIntyre created a beautiful book of those meditations. Embers feels good in the hand and in the heart. This is a book to keep by the bedside, to read a little at a time and let the mind absorb. The book is Richard Wagemese's final gift, a sharing of deep, inner stirrings.
January 30, 2017
Richard Wagamese's morning meditations beautifully presented in combination with photographs from various sources, often revealing the wisdom of his years and culture and his becoming the man he is and wishes to be, and their meaning occasionally opaque to this reader's eyes. It might be better to pick up this book and dip into it over a period of time, rather than reading it cover to cover. My preference in RW's writing is for his wonderful novels in which he brings his characters so fully to life and where his abilities as a storyteller truly shine.
December 31, 2021
A little heavy on the spiritual side of things so if that's not your cup of tea, it might not be for you. Wagamese is a beautiful writer and this gives you a really great journey into how he thinks about the world. It's a short read but well worth it! My favourite quotation (probably paraphrased): "Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in."
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