Taking Our Places by Norman Fischer

Taking Our Places by Norman Fischer

This engaging contemplation of maturity addresses the long neglected topic of what it means to grow up, and provides a hands-on guide for skilfully navigating the demands of our adult lives.

Growing up happens whether we like it or not, but maturity must be cultivated. Challenged to consider his own sense of maturity while mentoring a group of teenage boys, Fischer began to investigate our preconceptions about what it means to be "an adult" and shows how crucial true maturity is to leading an engaged, fulfilled life. Taking Our Places details the marks of a mature person and shows how these attributes can help alleviate our suffering and enrich our relationships. Discussing such qualities as awareness, responsibility, humour, acceptance, and humility, Fischer brings a fresh and at times surprising new perspective that can turn old ideas on their heads and reinvigorate our understanding of what it means to be mature.

Norman Fischer is a Buddhist priest who practices Zen Buddhism. He is the founder and instructor of the Everyday Zen Foundation, a network of communities and programs, and is a former abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. Fischer began writing poetry as part of a Bay Area community of experimental authors in the late 1970s. Turn Left In Order To Go Right (O Books, 1989), Precisely The Point Being Made (O Books/Chax Press 1993), Jerusalem Moonlight (Clear Glass Publications, 1995), The Narrow Roads of Japan (Ex Nihilo Press 1998), Success (Singing Horse Press, 2000), Slowly but Dearly (Chax Press, 2004), I Was Blown Back (Singing Horse Press, 2005), Charlotte's Way (TinFish 2008), and Success Sailing Home: Applying the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls (Simon and Schuster, 2008) is his most recent prose work.