Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood

Combining humor, honesty, and plainspoken advice, Momma Zen distills the doubts and frustrations of early parenting into vignettes of Zen wisdom. Drawing on the author's long-term practice of meditation, and inspired by her own struggles as a first-time mother, Momma Zen explores the timeless inner lessons of parenthood. The narrative follows the timeline of early motherhood from pregnancy through toddlerhood. The author takes readers on a transformative journey, charting her own growth beyond her naive expectations, sense of isolation, and disorientation to finding fulfillment in ordinary tasks, developing greater self-awareness and acceptance, and gradually discovering maternal bliss, a state of happiness and ease. Each chapter opens with a classical Zen teaching story, koan, Zen poem, or Zen saying that encapsulates the lesson addressed in the chapter. Just as Zen wisdom is drawn from experience, Momma Zen captures the kind of wisdom that real mothers wring from their real lives--recognizably true, accessible, and empowering. Along the way, Miller explores the hot topics of contemporary parenting including discipline, television, materialism, attachment vs. independence, and nurturing one's marriage after having children. Chapter titles include Night Watch--A meditation on sleeplessness Small Failures--Why there are no mistakes in motherhood, even the unforgivable ones Living Change--Everything changes. How quickly can you? Trusting Yourself--In parenting, knowing nothing is knowing everything No Exit--How to embrace the challenges and complexities of motherhood and find real happiness

Combining humor, honesty, and plainspoken advice, Momma Zen distills the doubts and frustrations of parenting into vignettes of Zen wisdom.

Drawing on her experience as a first-time mother, and on her years of Zen meditation and study, Miller explores how the daily challenges of parenthood can become the most profound spiritual journey of our lives.

This compelling and wise memoir follows the timeline of early motherhood from pregnancy through toddlerhood. Momma Zen takes readers on a transformative journey, charting a mother’s growth beyond naive expectations and disorientation to finding fulfillment in ordinary tasks, developing greater self-awareness and acceptance—to the gradual discovery of “maternal bliss,” a state of abiding happiness and ease that is available to us all.

In her gentle and reassuring voice, Karen Miller convinces us that ancient and authentic spiritual lessons can be as familiar as a lullaby, as ordinary as pureed peas, and as frequent as a sleepless night. She offers encouragement for the hard days, consolation for the long haul, and the lightheartedness every new mom needs to face the crooked path of motherhood straight on.

A Zen teacher and mother explains how the daily challenges of mothering can lead one to discover greater equanimity, fearlessness, and compassion--a work of uncommon insight written for new mothers of any background. 25,000.

Karen Maezen Miller is a mother, wife, writer, and a Zen teacher (dharma holder) in the lineage of the legendary Zen master Taizan Maezumi Roshi. A journalist by training, the author had a twenty-year career as the owner of a marketing and public relations agency. Today she freelances as a business communications consultant, speechwriter, speech trainer, web copywriter, and ghostwriter.