Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations - Paperback

by Richard Wagamese (Author)

An inspirational, spiritual and transformative collection of meditative wisdoms by beloved Indigenous author Richard Wagamese.

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.

"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

Author Biography

Richard Wagamese was one of Canada's foremost writers. His acclaimed, bestselling novels included Indian Horse--which was a Canada Reads finalist, winner of the inaugural Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, and made into a feature film--and Medicine Walk. He was also the author of acclaimed memoirs, including For Joshua, One Native Life, and One Story, One Song, which won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. His collection of personal reflections include Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit, One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Plant and Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations, which received the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award. He won numerous awards and recognition for his writing, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize, the Canada Reads People's Choice Award, and the Writers' Trust of Canada's Matt Cohen Award. Wagamese died on March 10, 2017, in Kamloops, British Columbia.