To Be Here is Immense
A sensual, luminous memoir spanning continents, states of being, and the devastating cost of devotion, To Be Here Is Immense follows one woman’s quest for love through art, activism, and spiritual surrender. Braiding fierce intelligence with dark wit, Clare Simons moves from Manhattan ambition to a guru-blessed marriage and beyond the aftermath of sudden widowhood. Shattering loss demands everything. How do we go on in a world where nothing—not even the sacred—can be held?
Advanced Praise
“The sacred and the profane are never far apart in this hilarious, heartbreaking memoir about loving another person through the mess of our own humanity while traveling together on the path to God. Simons is a seeker of the first order —intelligent, skeptical, self-questioning — and her story of loss and metamorphosis deserves a place next to Elaine Mansfield’s Leaning into Love and Andrew Harvey’s Return of the Mother. Wry, inquisitive, resolutely entertaining, Clare Simons is an original.” —Mark Matousek, author of Sex Death Enlightenment and Lessons From an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life
“Clare’s search was propelled by some of the most transformative political messages of our time. Her behind-the-scenes narrative is more compelling than anything in front of the camera could ever be. We see her pass from keen observer to passionate advocate and from lover to widow, always chasing Truth on the path of mercy and compassion.” —Barbara Coombs Lee, President Emerita & Senior Advisor, Compassion & Choices; author of Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at the End of Life
“The triumph here is the authority of the storytelling voice, breezy, easily elegant. We believe in it. I’m talking trust. The stories fill me with joy and make my head spin. The rush of the real world and the ecstatic is disarmingly beautiful. I am never in the presence of the glorious long enough to doubt it.” —Joanna Rose, A Small Crowd of Strangers by Forest Avenue Press