Discovering the true meaning of home

Globetrotter Jennifer Lang explores her search for a place to call home-and the role yoga played in helping her find it-in her latest book, Landed: A Yogi’s Memoir in Pieces & Poses.  

The Northwestern alum will return to Chicago to speak about her new book in November. Her earlier memoir, Places We Left Behind , ends in 2011; Landed picks up there. The new memoir is, she said, “a seven-year mental search for home, on and off the yoga mat.” Aside from geographic rootlessness, she and her husband come from such different backgrounds that she felt she was in a “mixed marriage.” During that period, she also was coping with “midlife hormones, an imminent empty nest, and making Israel home.” 

Now, she feels that she has landed– in Israel. “We bought our apartment and plan to age in place,” Lang said. “We have hung our mezuzah for the last time.” 

The book tells the winding tale of her life’s journeys, both physical and emotional, with a series of “chapterettes,” as she calls them, and illustrations. Her story began with a Reform Jewish upbringing in Oakland, Calif.

While at Northwestern, Lang spent her junior year in Paris, where she worked as a translator for the World Jewish Congress. Her time aboard helped her realize, she said, “Maybe I can live someplace else.”  

The feeling of possibility made her feel both liberated and untethered, she said. She would spend the next part of her life trying balance to these two emotions: “I was completely rooted for my first 18 years. Now, I didn’t know where I was going to land.” 

Surprisingly, she would have leave France for Israel to meet her French husband, Philippe. They decided that if one chose where they would live-her California or his Israel-the other would choose how they would live; he was Orthodox, she Reform.  

They settled in California, less than a mile from her parents, and had three children. She was “home” now, right? And yet… 

She began taking yoga classes from Rodney Yee, a renowned yogi, whose insights are sprinkled throughout Landed. “What moved me,” Lang said, “were the words he used in class: root, ground, anchor. I did not know where ‘home’ was, and these words made my eyes well with tears. I wanted to be rooted, but I didn’t know how.” 

Then, at 30, this traveler realized that “home” was not a matter of place, but of people. With their three children, now adolescents, they made aliyah–immigrated to Israel.  

In Tel Aviv, Lang writes, and teaches writing through her Israel Writers Studio, employing her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and her years of experience. Lang’s essays have been published by Real Simple, HuffPost, and more.

This, even though she “hated English class and all its grammar rules.” They didn’t click, she said until she started to use French. Translating the works of others, she said, also began her move into writing. 

She also practices and teaches yoga; she is certified in Vinyāsa Yoga, but also has practiced Anusara. “There are poses gained and lost with age,” Lang noted. “As long as I stay flexible and strong, I’m happy with that.”  

Landed: A Yogi’s Memoir in Pieces & Poses is published by Vine Leaves Press, and distributed through Ingram. It can be ordered at vineleavespress.myshopify.com.  

On Wednesday, Nov. 6 from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Lang will discuss her book at Chicago Loop Synagogue, followed by a yoga session taught by Stephanie Shallit. To learn more, visit chiloopsyn.org.
Later that day, from 7-8:30 p.m., she will appear at Secret World Books bookstore, in Highland Park (founded and owned by author Gayle Brandeis) alongside poet Talya Jankovitz. Their books are available at Bookshop.org. To learn more, visit secretworldbooks.com.