"This is a cathedral of a book. In it you hear only Natalie's pure voice, which builds and builds without pretension from the details of her life to an understanding of its source, which is the source of all of us," -- Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila Natalie Goldberg's two books on writing, Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, have sold hundreds of thousands of copies because they address something deeper in the reader than simply the desire to write. They point the way to a more authentic existence, a new grounding within the self and in the world. Now Natalie Goldberg takes us on her own wonderful journey of awakening from the profound sleep of a suburban childhood. From the high school classroom where she first listened to the rain, to her fifteen years as a student of Zen Buddhism, she captures both the moments of illumination and the long discipline of daily practice, the hilarity of error and the grief of our resistance to change. Throughout, Natalie Goldberg shows herself to be an immensely gifted writer and teacher. To experience her book is to begin to understand the essential summons to wake up -- "Every moment is enormous, and it is all we have."