Blog Archives
Learning and Adventure
Glimpses of Grace is a collection of personal essays that traces your journey through motherhood, caregiving, and vision loss, revealing the quiet moments of grace that give life meaning even as your sight begins to fade. Why did you choose essays instead of a traditional memoir format?
I had long been interested in the essay form and in fact took several online courses in essay construction, but then began writing my first memoir, then the second, then a more spiritual book. Glimpses of Grace grew out of my experience with failing vision. It became a little harder to manage the technology of writing, and it seemed short essays might be the most useful form. I wanted to capture the daily joys and gifts that appeared for me in this journey.
What role does spirituality play in how you understand aging?
I believe we are all spiritual beings, simply living on this planet in our “earth suit.” In looking back over my life, I see that I have always been led to follow a particular path, always connected to the intuitive and spiritual self. There is new learning in every breath of life.
What has aging taught you that younger readers might not expect?
Aging is not a “season of loss” as someone once said. It is a season of letting go of what is no longer needed and looking forward to the learning and adventure that continues to invite us.
How do you recognize grace in your life today?
Oh my. Grace is part of every day. It is in the riches of nature, the small kindnesses shown to us, a smile, the laughter of children, and the new challenges that bring us to new understandings of those around us.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Most beautifully, Bowen illuminates the sacred connections that bind 1s—fleeting exchanges with strangers that change everything, the trust between patient and caregiver, the revelations that pass between teacher and student, and the deep roots of family love. Each encounter becomes a meditation on how we truly see one another, how we honor the precious gift of being alive together on this earth.
The Opioid Epidemic
Flirting With Extinction is a raw and unapologetic mosaic of personal essays and stories that chart a life punctuated by grief, recklessness, resilience, and searching. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I needed to process my grief in some way, and I thought that by analyzing it and finding the life lessons in all that had transpired and writing about it would help me navigate my pain as well as the pain of others who have lost cherished loved ones to the opioid epidemic sweeping America’s youth.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
My love for my sons was not as powerful a motivating force in their lives as the cultural zeitgeist they lived with. They had moved away from their Land Before Time and Pokémon mindset into what their peers were doing in the Seattle music scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The 1960s bohemian fashion was in style along with designer drugs I had never heard of until one of my sons died after using the latest drug on the scene, fentanyl. And then even after rehab, the other one followed suit several years later, killing himself on meth. I was absolutely devastated.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The deaths of my sons, I cried every time I worked on that aspect of the story. It took multiple edits with my tears running into my coffee and ruining the taste.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
If you value life, and even if you believe in an afterlife, after experiencing the death of a loved one, it’s important for one’s sanity to find the positive in the negative and nurture those seeds of positivity in everything, to make the pain more bearable. In my sons’ memory, I wear the Jewish Chai symbol that serves as a reminder to embrace life’s inherent beauty, to cherish the present moment, and to recognize the profound interconnectedness of all life.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
After converting to Judaism and adopting her new husband’s name, she moved to Washington state and together with her husband, Joanna helped create a utopia on their island home, far from family feuds. As a family they explored the Pacific Northwest wilderness and played sports. Their children thrived in an environment filled with art, music, and freedom. But the idyllic life they built took a dark turn when their teenage son Micah, along with his friends, defaced a yeshiva, with one drawing swastikas and the chilling message, “this way to the gas chambers”—a reckless joke that would lead to devastating consequences.
As the law came down hard on Micah, the family faced the unbearable loss of their other son, Seth. In Flirting with Extinction, Joanna Kadish explores the deep-rooted trauma inherited from Holocaust survivors. Micah’s great-grandfather was killed in a German labor camp, and Micah’s grandfather, with his mother and sister, fled Germany shortly before Kristallnacht. Decades later, that trauma continues to haunt the family, proving that the wounds of history are not so easily healed.
These are Joanna’s stories of survival, loss, and the enduring impact of generational trauma.
