RESTORING RELATIONSHIPS to Ourselves, to One Another, and to the Earth
Spirituality & Health|May/June 2022
AN INTERVIEW WITH FARIHA RÓISÍN
STEPHEN KIESLING
RESTORING RELATIONSHIPS to Ourselves, to One Another, and to the Earth

Fariha Róisín is an acclaimed poet and novelist, as well as a queer Muslim who grew up immersed in Buddhism and Hinduism—while reading Spirituality & Health. She also grew up with unspeakable abuse. Her new book is Who Is Wellness For: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind. It is a critical memoir about the formation of a pioneering spirit for our times.

Let’s go back to your earliest memory: Your mom is tying herself to a railroad track, screaming that she wants to die. That’s extreme.

I’m sure this is very apparent in a lot of my work, but I grew up around and witnessed extreme violence from a very young age. And I think when you are able to face those parts of yourself and acknowledge something as dire and sad as realizing that my earliest memory is of my mother tying herself to a train track and being unfazed that her children are watching … yeah, it’s just a lived reality of mine. I know that it may sound incomprehensible to a lot of people, but it’s my reality.

By the same token, your parents experienced genocide in Bangladesh during the 1970s. That’s hard to grasp. When did you begin to tie those stories together?

This story is from the May/June 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the May/June 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM SPIRITUALITY & HEALTHView All
ONE WORD TO BEAT WINTER BLUES: BIOMIMICRY
Spirituality & Health

ONE WORD TO BEAT WINTER BLUES: BIOMIMICRY

CREATURELY REFLECTIONS

time-read
4 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
THINKING ABOUT RESTITUTION
Spirituality & Health

THINKING ABOUT RESTITUTION

THE HEART OF HAPPINESS

time-read
5 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
WAITING IN LINE
Spirituality & Health

WAITING IN LINE

OUR WALK IN THE WORLD

time-read
2 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
ENTER THE SAUNA
Spirituality & Health

ENTER THE SAUNA

Journalist Emily O’Kelly shares some uplifting research on the benefits of sweat bathing, a global healing practice not just limited to Northern climes.

time-read
2 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
the trail of ATONEMENT
Spirituality & Health

the trail of ATONEMENT

One Ashkenazi Jewish family escaped pogroms in Russia and then flourished in South Dakota, but the “free land” of their new homestead had been unfairly taken from the Lakota by the United States. Generations later, a celebrated investigative journalist set out to tell the truth of the Lakota and her family, calculate The Cost of Free Land—and pay it back.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
STALKING YOUR Mind
Spirituality & Health

STALKING YOUR Mind

Stalking the Mind is part of an ancient Indigenous American Medicine Way to tame your guilt, fears, and shame. What we’re “stalking” are our thought patterns and beliefs that seem to create the opposite of happiness and wellbeing. It’s a powerful psychotherapeutic journey of healing without the diagnosis or labels.

time-read
10+ mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
LEAVING MESA VERDE
Spirituality & Health

LEAVING MESA VERDE

After 21 years of service at Mesa Verde National Park, RANGER DAVID FRANKS recently guided his last tour of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. He says he was fortunate to assist the archeologists with a variety of work and never lost his amazement with their ability to figure out how and when things happened. The question he still wrestles with is much deeper: Why they left?

time-read
5 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
BECOMING YOUR OWN LEAD RESEARCHER IN HEALTHCARE
Spirituality & Health

BECOMING YOUR OWN LEAD RESEARCHER IN HEALTHCARE

PEGGY LA CERRA, PHD, downloaded a health app to aggregate her medical records and was stunned to see the phrase \"aortic atherosclerosis.\" What she did next is a helpful model for all of us.

time-read
6 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY
Spirituality & Health

ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY

\"Is astrology true?\" is the wrong question, writes RABBI RAMI SHAPIRO. He suggests that the truth is out there, but out there is really in here.

time-read
6 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023
WELLNESS IN THE WILD
Spirituality & Health

WELLNESS IN THE WILD

Spa aficionado MARY BEMIS takes the [cold] plunge at Mohonk Mountain House.

time-read
3 mins  |
Sep/Oct 2023