WENDY HOROWITZ: AUTHOR 'MILKWEED AND HONEY CAKE" - A MEMOIR IN RITUAL MOMENTS (Audio)

In Milkweed and Honey Cake: A Memoir in Ritual Moments, Wendy A. Horwitz shares stories about celebration, loss, change, and the best way to open a pomegranate, holidays delight and disappointment. In the book, Wendy talks about a couple marrying in the pandemic finds a surprise after a rainstorm, and a topsy-turvy search for a gravestone honors her ancestors. When a graduation is cancelled, Horwitz serves pomp and circumstance on the front porch, and through the shifting seasons of a life, amid the scramble of pet guinea pigs and birthday parties, her children add wonder and comedy to tradition. With observations from nature, religion, and literature, Horwitz explores how ritual can exalt ordinary moments and frame the extraordinary. A blue heron, an old cupboard's scent, and the lingering feel of an engagement ring long gone prompt reflections laced with yearning and humor. Guiding us along a wooded path, to the kitchen table, in a messy garden, and under a tent reverberating with song, she traces the boundaries of ritual, considering what we do when ritual falls short, and how we might adapt each other's practices. And when the wider world seems broken, new rituals provide hope. 💠 Lyrical and funny, thought-provoking and deeply moving, Milkweed and Honey Cake is at once a meditation on our desire for meaning and the story of a woman's lifelong efforts to create it. Wendy’s essays have published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Afterimage, Neurology, Jewiwh Literary Journal, Intrepid Times and McCalatch- Tribute News Service. She was originally trained as a pediatric psychologist, she lives in Philadelphia, where she teaches writing and health humanities.