Why I want to meet Natalie Goldberg
I have been much influenced by Natalie since reading her book Writing Down the Bones about 11 years ago, I guess. Then Long Quiet Highway hit me – I just love that book! And in that book I discovered that Natalie and I were in the same area of France at the same time, each of us mourning the death of a very special person in our lives. Her loss was of the Zen master she had studied with. My loss was of my brother Chris a great jazz musician who lived in the southwest of France in the Departement of Lot-et-Garonne. So there we both were, in mid-1990, near Bordeaux, in mourning and far from our homes, without knowing about each other or even being aware of each other. I did not know how Natalie would affect me later, indeed I had at that stage not even heard about her. And its safe to assume she has still not heard about me! But I would love to meet her and experience some of her wisdom and warmth, not to mention her skill in imparting writing skills to others.
