September 11, 2025
Zenshin Florence Caplow’s New Book, Tend to Your Spirit: Mindful Living With Chronic Illness

 

By Tova Green

Zenshin Florence Caplow, a Soto Zen priest and teacher who trained at San Francisco Zen Center, has lived with chronic illness and pain since 1999, and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2021. Three years ago, she began offering an online program at SFZC for people with chronic pain and health challenges called Dancing in the Dark Fields, based on her article about living with chronic illness. Florence’s new book, Tend to Your Spirit, Mindful Living with Chronic Illness, co-written with Julianne Lepp, will be published by Skinner House Books on October 7.

Florence’s six-week Dancing in the Dark Fields of Illness and Pain class is offered 2-3 times a year, and she also hosts an ongoing practice group. Participants are working with a huge range of health challenges: “It’s been extraordinary the way that members of the ongoing group become a community; they support each other.” Florence’s teaching is also inspired by the life and work of the late Darlene Cohen, who taught that we can turn toward illness and pain, practice with it, and find joys in the life we have.

Florence, who was ordained by Zoketsu Norman Fischer in 2007 and received Dharma transmission from Kanzan Bruce Fortin in 2022, is also a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister. Several years ago, she was approached by another UU minister, Julianne Lepp, who had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis around the same time in 2021. “She knew about my classes at SFZC and my other writing projects, and suggested that we write a book together that would offer spiritual practices for people with chronic illness.

“We met and imagined a book based around the four seasons. Each season would have four chapters about different emotional and spiritual aspects of living with chronic illness.” There are many elements in each chapter, including short readings, interviews with people from a wide range of backgrounds and identities, the authors’ own personal writing, guided meditations, quotes, poetry, and even music playlists. Each chapter also contains journal prompts, spiritual practices, and discussion questions. “One of our hopes is that people could form small groups to explore the questions and exercises in the book together.”

The book begins with Autumn, which includes chapters on letting go, grief and self-compassion, anger and pain—experiences that often arise when first developing a chronic condition. Winter includes chapters on fear and isolation as well as strength and comfort. Spring focuses on hope, unpredictability, shame, and the experiences of caregiving. Summer is about beauty, rest, play, and acceptance. “None of these feelings is inherently bad—they’re our experience, and if we can honor them, hard as they are, there are gifts within them. With illness, the feelings can be intense. If we judge ourselves for those feelings, it can make life even more painful. The book is designed so that a reader can go to whatever section feels like the best medicine at the time.”

Florence’s Dancing in the Dark Fields classes have been running concurrently with the writing of the book. “I have brought sections of the book to some of the classes and have included some of what has come up in the class as topics in the book. Hundreds of people have participated in Dancing in the Dark Fields over the last three years, and their wisdom is subtly woven into the book. I am grateful for each participant.”

Both Florence and Julianne are excited about the book’s release next month. The artwork in the book was created by an artist who is herself chronically ill. “I want people to feel a little better even looking at the book, paging through it, seeing the images and the poetry. Julianne and I want it to be a friendly spiritual companion to readers who may be new to a life of chronic pain, illness, or disability, as well as to those who have been living with it for a long time.”

Florence will be giving a Saturday morning talk at City Center on November 1, followed by a book launch and signing, and an afternoon workshop, Tend to Your Spirit: Practices for Those Living With Chronic Pain and Illness. “The renovation of City Center, which makes it so much more accessible for those with mobility challenges, is part of what makes this possible,” Florence noted. The book and the ebook version can be pre-ordered from any book retailer, and the book can be purchased directly from the SFZC Store after October 7 and can be shipped nationwide.

In addition to Florence’s new book, she is the co-editor, with Reigetsu Susan Moon, of The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women. Her next six-week Dancing in the Dark Fields class begins at the end of September.

 

Arts & Culture, Features, News, Zen Practice

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