This spiritual companion for mourners affirms their need to mourn and invites them to journey through their very unique and personal grief. Detailed are the six needs that all mourners must yield to and eventually embrace if they are to go on to find continued meaning in life and living, including the need to remember the deceased loved one and the need for support from others. Short explanations of each mourning need are followed by brief, spiritual passages that, when read slowly and reflectively, help mourners work through their unique thoughts and feelings. Also included in this revised edition are journaling sections for mourners to write out their personal responses to each of the six needs. This replaces 1879651114.
For those of us working through the heartbreak of grief, author Bozarth offers wise and comforting advice. For those of us working through the heartbreak of grief, author Bozarth offers wise and comforting advice.
In this “volume of rare sensitivity, penetrating understanding, and profound insights” (Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, author of Living When a Loved One Has Died), Dr. Kenneth Doka explores a new, compassionate way to grieve, explaining that grief is not an illness to get over but an individual and ongoing journey. There is no “one-size-fits-all” way to cope with loss. The vital bonds that we form with those we love in life continue long after death—in very different ways. Grief Is a Journey is the first book to overturn prevailing, often judgmental, ideas about grief and replace them with a hopeful, inclusive, personalized, and research-backed approach. New science and studies behind Dr. Doka’s teaching upend the dominant but incorrect view that grief proceeds by stages. Dr. Doka helps us realize that our experiences following a death are far more individual and much less predictable than the conventional “five stages” model would have us believe. Common patterns of experiencing and expressing grief still prevail, yet many other life changes accompany a primary loss. For example, the deaths of parents, even for adults, modify family patterns, change relationships, and alter old family rituals. Unique to this book, Dr. Doka also explains how to cope with disenfranchised grief—the types of loss that are not so readily recognized or supported by society. These include the death of ex-spouses, as well as non-fatal losses such as divorce, the end of a friendship, job loss, or infertility. In addition, Dr. Doka considers losses that might be stigmatized, including death by suicide or from disease or self-destructive behaviors such as smoking or alcoholism. And finally, Dr. Doka reminds us that, however painful, grief provides opportunities for growth.
“Rarely do memoirs of grief combine anguish, love, and fury with such elegance.” —Entertainment Weekly A moving and remarkable memoir about the sudden death of a daughter, surviving grief, and learning to love again.
This classic resource helps guide the bereaved person through the loss of a loved one, and provides an opportunity to learn to live with and work through the personal grief process.
Explaining the important difference between grief and mourning, this book explores every mourner's need to acknowledge death and embrace the pain of loss. Also explored are the many factors that make each person's grief unique and the many normal thoughts and feelings mourners might have. Questions of spirituality and religion are addressed as well. The rights of mourners to be compassionate with themselves, to lean on others for help, and to trust in their ability to heal are upheld. Journaling sections encourage mourners to articulate their unique thoughts and feelings.
In this true story, a young girl tells how her family continued to grow and enjoy life even after the tragic death of her father, demonstrating how turning the daily pages of our lives can help heal the grieving heart. It is a story of hope.
The ramblings of a man still on a journey through the darkness created by the loss of his only child to opioids. This story is filled with the recovery of grief, the signs and symbols seen along the way, and the drive to develop a life worthy of seeing her again in the afterlife. Taking the stuff that happens to us and working to carry it along in the character of his being. A unique story with emotional heart felt writing. Just a guy, his loving and best friend in marriage of forty years, and how they worked together to manage life without their beautiful daughter.
My husband died. Suddenly and tragically. I was 33. I had three young children and had just released my first solo album. I was in shock and grief for months after...I barely hung on. One of the last things my husband Chad did on the day that he died was write in his journal. The next morning, as I waited to tell my children that their daddy was dead, I wrote the next entry. I kept writing. I poured out my heart and soul to God, crying out to Him as I walked, no slogged, through the months and years of suffering. I sobbed, wrestled, screamed and questioned everything I knew to be true about God. And, He wrapped me in peace and loved me through the very worst days of my life. During that sad time I needed - and indeed searched for - a guide to how it would FEEL to walk this walk, to take this journey. And, although there were plenty of books about other people's lives through tragedy, there was not a month by month description that depicted the very real struggles of a young widow. NOW THERE IS! I have told my story and put together many of the journal entries into which I poured my heart in those awful months after my beloved's death. I very honestly wrestle with God, who very lovingly held me in His arms through it all. This book takes you by the hand, encouraging you and scripturally supporting you as you deal with your new normal.
