Showing results for title "It" in Grief & Loss

In This Life I Live, Rory Feek helps us not only to connect more fully to his and Joey’s story but also to our own journeys. He shows what can happen when we are fully open in life’s key moments, whether when meeting our life companion or tackling an unexpected tragedy. He also gives never-before-revealed details on their life together and what he calls “the long goodbye,” the blessing of being able to know that life is going to end and taking advantage of it.

Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides - as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner - Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing.

When Clare Mackintosh lost her five-week-old son, she soon discovered there are no neat, labeled stages of grief like so many books insist. The shape of each loss is different; when a parent, relative, or friend passes, we grieve the person in all their beauty, their humanity, their imperfections. For Clare, there was no preparing for the anger and excruciating ache of knowing her child's life would remain unlived. This is the book she needed then.

In What Does It Feel Like to Die?, Jennie Dear combines the latest research and medical findings with her own experiences as a hospice volunteer and caregiver to answer the questions we all want to know. As a long-time hospice volunteer, Jennie Dear has helped countless patients, families, and caregivers cope with the many challenges of the dying process. Inspired by her own personal journey with her mother's long-term illness, Dear demystifies the experience of dying for everyone whose lives it touches.

Rabbi Gershon Schusterman knew all the textbook answers when comforting bereaved community members who asked him, “Where is God? If God is loving, how could this happen?” But when the rabbi’s young wife died suddenly, leaving him a 38-year-old widower with eleven children to raise, he found himself reeling.

Death might seem to render pointless all our attempts to create a meaningful life. Doesn't meaning require transcending death through an afterlife or in some other way? On the contrary, Dean Rickles argues, life without death would be like playing tennis without a net. Only constraints—and death is the ultimate constraint—make our actions meaningful. In Life Is Short, Rickles explains why the finiteness and shortness of life is the essence of its meaning-and how this insight is the key to making the most of the time we do have.

In our lives, terrible things may happen. Michael Rosen has grieved the loss of a child, lived with debilitating chronic illness, and faced death itself when seriously unwell in hospital. In spite of this he has survived, and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy. In Getting Better, he shares his story and the lessons he has learned along the way. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery.

When people hear the word acceptance, they might assume that it means being OK with what happened in the past or with how things currently are. In fact, there is a difference between acceptance and 'feeling good' about what happened—acceptance means allowing yourself to feel whatever emotions naturally come up in response to what you are going through. It means acknowledging the reality of the pain, even though in an ideal world, it shouldn't be that way.

Worship leader and recording artist Laura Story's life took an unexpected turn when her husband, Martin, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Their lives would never be the same. Yes, with God all things are possible. But the devastating news was that no cure existed to restore Martin's short-term memory, eyesight, and other complications. The fairy-tale life Laura had dreamed of was no longer possible. And yet in struggling with God about how to live with broken dreams, Laura has found joy and a deeper intimacy with Jesus.

When her brother dies from cancer, and then her mother just four months later, Teresa Strasser has no one to mourn with but her irresponsible, cantankerous, trailerpark-dwelling father. He claims not to remember her chaotic childhood, but he’s a devoted grandpa, so as her son embarks on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and Nelson form a grief group of two in beach chairs lined up behind the first base line.

“It’s just grief,” they’ll tell you. “It will pass. We all lose someone at some point in our lives.” But the death of a partner is so much more than “just grief.” It’s a different kind of grief—the kind that permanently shifts our perspective on life.

In Normal Broken, Kelly Cervantes isn't trying to tell you what to do, how to feel, or the right way to heal. She's also not flinging sunny thoughts, vibes, and prayers at you. After losing her daughter to epilepsy, she knows that grief is many things. Something everyone will have to deal with. But never linear. Just as what we are grieving varies, so do our journeys to process it. Normal Broken was born out of this desire to meet people where they are in their grief journeys, to lend a hand, or maybe to just sit in the dark with them.

Raised Catholic, she sang songs about Jesus as a child and lived in a house where nuns and priests were regular guests, yet she found herself questioning the faith of her family, examining the reasons none of it added up, and distancing herself from the God of Christianity. Despite her questions—or perhaps because of them—she made a career out of trying to understand God, pursuing a PhD in religion. But even as she taught college students about mystics, theologians, and others who wrestled with God, she was never able to embrace a faith of her own.

Everyone will experience grief at some point in their lives. There is no one answer to overcoming the grieving process, but understanding it is key. According to The 5 Stages of Grief, there are five stages that a person goes through after a loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each stage has its own challenges and needs that must be addressed in order to move on. However, by recognizing these early signs and addressing them head-on, most people can overcome their grief and move on with their lives.

Grief does not follow a timeline or a set path. It is nonlinear and messy, doubling back on itself just when you thought you were out of the woods. Those who have experienced the loss of a loved one know this unequivocally, but Western society still seems to think that grief should only last six months to a year—tops—when in fact, grief can last throughout a person's entire life and manifest as serious mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, anger, and despair.

Do you believe that there is Life After This? This book will take you on a journey through history to look at how past civilizations buried their deceased loved ones, communicated with them, and honored their Gods. You will hear details from people who have encountered near-death experiences, and from people such as doctors, nurses, and caregivers who witness the death of loved ones on a daily basis. The author also looks at the reality that we receive signs and messages from the other side, and how we can communicate with our loved ones if we choose to do so.

Grief hurts. It is painful. It is relentless. It affects the emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of one’s existence. It is dark. It is lonely. It is exhausting. It is indescribable. It is a wilderness with seemingly no way out. It shatters and robs you of your hopes, dreams, and expectations. It can paralyze your willingness to survive. If denied, ignored, or left unresolved, it can negatively affect every other area of your life.

The purpose of this book is to use examples from the life and experiences of a Christian physician who relies on his faith in his daily practice to show how grief can be overcome and how family and friends can best minister to the sick and dying. The book explains how very sick and dying patients can make rational decisions to ensure that they receive the most compassionate and effective care. The book illustrates how service to others can be a cure for grief and loss.

The planet is burning, friends and family are falling to cults and QAnon, and we’re all living through the collective trauma of a global pandemic. Among therapists and healers, burnout is rampant; hopelessness and despair are, too. In The Grieving Therapist, psychotherapists Larisa Garski, LMFT, and Justine Mastin, LMFT, give voice to the difficulties of therapising in today’s world—and offer a grief-informed framework for taking care of yourself as you take care of others.

In this supportive guide, a widow and a mental-health expert provide guidance and thoughtful advice for anyone dealing with traumatic loss.