Between Earth and Sky

A transformative 100-day exploration through the seemingly desolate lands of Mexico's "place of the dead" etches a path of collapse and renewal, documented in poignant, imaginative prose and remarkable macro lens photography.

A visually arresting and contemplative giftable object that pairs luminous, full color macro photography from the stark, mythical deserts of Oaxaca, Mexico with short, reflective prose rooted in mindfulness

After the loss of his career and identity as a New York City journalist, Jo Confino finds himself in pandemic exile in Mitla, Mexico—the “place of the dead”—where the silence of the landscape becomes the canvas for a radical unlearning. The book that emerged, compact and aesthetic, is a tactile, treasured companion for personal reflection or ritual space.

Inspired by the Engaged Zen teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and the tradition of mindfulness, these reverent pages invite the reader to slow down, look deeply, and encounter impermanence, interconnection, and endless mystery. The spritiual arc—from disintegration to insight and renewal—the author discovers offers a map through global disruption and toward rootedness in unfamiliar places.

Tracing 100 days of unexpected lockdown, Between Earth and Sky folds together memoir, photographic meditation, and spiritual inquiry to create a fresh, poetic take on ecological awareness and spiritual resilience in a time of crisis that speaks to anyone who’s ever been brought to their knees by change and found something sacred in the dust."The writing and photography that emerged from Jo Confino’s one hundred days of quiet reflection carry a lived-in clarity—the sensitivity of someone who has sat with both collapse and renewal and was able to touch what his teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, calls the 'ultimate dimension.' These pages open a subtle threshold into a deeper way of seeing. To read these pages and linger with these images is to be drawn into a meditation."
—Chris Levine, artist and photographer of the Lightness of Being portrait of Queen Elizabeth II“A stunning compilation of images and words that collaborate
in entraining the reader not only into the high-resolution
universes and challenges that Jo’s camera and commentary so
magnificently capture and celebrate, but even more
importantly, into our own musings on the precarity and
preciousness of life and its endless wonders and challenges. It
reminds us in every momen—wherever we find ourselves, no
matter how difficult the circumstances—not to miss what is
before us and all around us. This book is a moving and deeply
illuminating oeuvre; a masterpiece in a singular genre of its
own."
—Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, founder of Mindfulness-
Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and author of
Wherever You Go, There You Are

“The writing and photography that emerged from Jo Confino’s
one hundred days of quiet reflection carry a lived-in
clarity—the sensitivity of someone who has sat with both
collapse and renewal and was able to touch what his teacher,
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, calls the ‘ultimate dimension.’
These pages open a subtle threshold into a deeper way of
seeing. To read these pages and linger with these images is to
be drawn into a meditation.”
—Chris Levine, artist and photographer of the
Lightness of Being portrait of Queen Elizabeth II

“Through the skillful and mindful lens of his camera, Jo Confino
reveals astonishing miniature worlds in Mexico's desert-like
Oaxacan valley, which is teeming with universal dramas of life
and death. His exquisite photography is wrapped in irresistible
storytelling of his search for a deeper path through globally
disrupted times. In so doing, Confino invites every one of us to
recognize the extraordinary fractal emotional landscapes that
are hidden in our own everyday experience. The result is
heart-stoppingly beautiful.”
—Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics

“A genre-defying travelogue that seamlessly blends Zen
wisdom with awe-inspiring photography to capture a candid
process of deepening self-awareness and enlightenment at a
time when the world went dark. Jo Confino’s latest book
beautifully embodies the Buddhist precept that when
something big gets in the way (such as a global pandemic),
there is no way around it—it is itself the way.”
—Britt Wray, PhD, author of Generation Dread and
director of CIRCLE, a research and action initiative
focused on Community-minded Interventions for
Resilience, Climate Leadership, and emotional well-
being in the Stanford University School of Medicine

“In this exquisite, extraordinary book, Jo Confino combines
hauntingly beautiful images of the very small and his own
deeply felt experience of the desert to give us insights
onto the largest questions of life. A tour de force.”
—Rebecca M. Henderson, author of Reimagining
Capitalism in a World on FireJo Confino is a leadership coach, spiritual mentor, facilitator, journalist, author, and sustainability expert. He works at the intersection of personal transformation and systems change and his coaching practice focuses on supporting leaders within the fields of climate, biodiversity and social justice. As a journalist for more than forty years, he was executive editor as well as Impact, Innovation, and Editorial Director of What’s Working at the HuffPost in NewYork. Before joining HuffPost, he was an executive editor of The Guardian, helping to create the environment, sustainable business, and global development websites as well as being responsible for ensuring the media organization lived its own values. A mindfulness advocate, Jo has worked closely with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community in southwestern France for nearly twenty years.