‘Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations’ by Richard Wagamese

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 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.” Richard Wagamese

Embers is a book of meditations, published just before the author’s death in 2017. Starlight, his last novel, was published posthumously in 2018. It was unfinished, but not diminished because of it. I have also enjoyed Medicine Walk and Ragged Company by this gifted storyteller.

These are beautiful and thoughtful meditations from a beloved author who lived a challenging life. He has everyday wisdom to share about what matters most. Honest and down to earth, his reflections are a mixture of spiritual and physical, humour and wisdom, joy and pain, the mundane and the marvellous. I will be returning to these meditations. The pieces are short and simple, but carry depth and spark warmth. The struggles in his life were a teacher and Wagamese shares what he has learned.

A few words about the publication of this book: I bought the Kindle version which has been handy for travel and was easy to read a few pages everyday on my ipad. I’ve bookmarked pages to return to. But I saw a copy of the print version on someone’s coffee table which is nicely illustrated with full colour photos–not sure why the Kindle version is only words. Also, when I tried to order the print version it was unavailable in print at Indigo and would take 1-2 months to deliver on Amazon! I find that very strange because this is a book published in Canada! I did also read in reviews that the audio version is well read by Christian Baskous, who is an actor and favourite narrator of audio books.