"In Zen," writes Buddhist Kim Boykin, "we practice experiencing fully the life we're actually living." This practice emerges from every page of The Weather from the West, a synergistic collaboration between poet Sheila Peters and painter Perry Rath, both of whom engage deeply with their physical, spiritual and emotional worlds. And like the weather, this collection brings warmth and comfort...or it jangles every nerve ending in our bodies. It's an opening, as the artists say, to the eastern slopes of the Skeena watershed where sorrow and wonder co-exist. It is a place where the eye and imagination meet and enhance our living.