Seeking Peace

February 15, 2009
Piphers account of being the worst Buddhist in the worlddriven, anxious, self-blamingis hard to put down with its smooth, compact, and insightful prose. In this quest describing a quest, best-selling Pipher describes how, after spending her life developing relationships to fend off her dark loneliness, she found that she possessed the wrong psychological makeup for public life when fame thrust her out of her support system and into an exhausting whirlwind of appearances. The woman with only two speedson and offhad never learned to pace herself, and instead excoriated herself for failings real and imagined. Only after her inability to disappoint others became a disaster, and she felt both totally naked and utterly hidden, could she take a first step toward self-reclamation: simplify. Time in seclusion spent petting her cat and exploring yoga and massage led her to the age-old healing found in familiar homey routines, and in laughter. Captivated by the concept of mindfulness and becoming a bird whose wings are compassion and awareness, Pipher found self-accepting peace through Buddhist meditation and in writing this absorbing chronicle of discovery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)