Customer Reviews

Celebrating the Coyote: A Memoir

Far from being overshadowed by her famous husband, Barbara Waters earned degrees in journalism and psychotherapy, the second of which she found helpful in understanding the man she married.

Waters reveals the sources of the inner strength and wisdom guiding her life. She says she realizes that "my whole book is a ceremony celebrating my exchange of energies with the universe." It a memoir of a journey from the depths of intense grief to a life newly appreciated. Although she includes details of her marriage, Water primarily shares the growth she underwent, both in being married to Frank Waters, and in recovering from his death.

She poignantly describes the "Damn firsts," like her first trip alone and first Valentine's Day without him, then adds, "the infinite number of Firsts is always surprising, sometimes overwhelming. Seconds are not nearly so wearing. Except for the sound of ambulances."

Waters adeptly weaves events from her youth, her life with Frank, the philosophy found in his books, and all that she has learned in a lifetime of study into a tapestry that celebrates life. As John Nichols writes in his forward, readers will find Celebrating the Coyote "a poetic, informed, and spellbinding elegy for a man and a marriage, and for the wondrous complexity of all life."