Tending the Fire: Through War and the Path of Meditation

Raised on a South Carolina sea island, tempered by experiences in the Vietnam War, and trained as a psychotherapist, Ralph Steele decided midlife that tending the fire of his life would be to take robes as a forest monk in Thailand and Myanmar-for a year or for a lifetime. He left his career and twenty-year relationship without knowing if he would return. Tending the Fire is the gripping, enlightening, and very human story of Ralph's transformative journey through war and meditation to a sense of wholeness, responsibility, peace, and compassion.

Partial Endorsements:

"Ralph Steele's memoir will be of great value, an inspiration for many who are seeking release from ignorance and suffering"

Ajahn Sumedho

"A beautifully written, humbling, uplifting, and profoundly sweet and electrifying life story illustrating the transformative value of the cultivation of mindfulness . . ."

Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

"One can't help but marvel at Ralph Steele's extraordinary life."

Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

"Buddha was a Kshatriya; he came from the warrior class, Ralph, too is a warrior who, like Buddha, had to climb the walls of his enclosures to breathe the fresh air."

Stephen and Ondrea Levine, authors of Becoming Kuan Yin: The Evolution of Compassion and The Healing I Took Birth For

"Ralph is able to show us, in an unflinchingly graphic story, what is at once intimate and honest, heart-shredding and tender."

Wayne Muller, M. Div., author of Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives

"Ralph Steele's Tending the Fire offers a glimpse into worlds few of us will ever experience-and yet the humanity he shares with us is something we all can resonate with."

Alexandra Kennedy, M.A., LMFT, author of Losing A Parent: Passage to a New Way of Living and Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal