Deeply bonded to her three older brothers and in awe of her father's experiences as a Holocaust survivor, young Ruby is shocked when her eldest brother is abruptly taken away to a hospital, where he changes into a person she barely recognizes. 35,000 first printing.
When Jan Richardson unexpectedly lost her husband and creative partner, the singer/songwriter Garrison Doles, she did what she had long known how to do: she wrote blessings. These were no sugar-coated blessings. They minimized none of the pain and bewilderment that came in the wake of a wrenching death. With these blessings, Jan entered, instead, into the depths of the shock, anger, and sorrow. From those depths, she has brought forth words that, with heartbreaking honesty, offer surprising comfort and stunning grace. Those who know loss will find kinship among these pages. In these blessings that move through the anguish of rending into the unexpected shelters of solace and hope, there shimmers a light that helps us see we do not walk alone. From her own path of grief, Jan offers a luminous, unforgettable gift that invites us to know the tenacity of hope and to recognize the presence of love that, as she writes, is "sorrow's most lasting cure."
Shamanic energy teacher Karen Johnson writes with both hope and compassion in a book described by bestselling author and noted shamanic teacher Alberto Villoldo as "The owner's manual for embracing grief with courage and transforming it into wisdom, to discover the ultimate and lasting gift of joy." Karen Johnson's fast-paced professional life came to an abrupt halt when she lost her twenty-seven-year-old son to a heroin overdose. Rather than grieve in a way that made people around her comfortable, she did the unexpected. She retired, sold her house and all her household goods, and went on a two-and-a-half-year journey that took her all over the world, finding a spiritual practice along the way. Karen didn't think she could ever find her way out of despair, but she found a process that worked-a sacred journey and map-that she wants to share with others so they can heal too. This book is structured around practices that are part of the Four Winds Medicine Wheel as developed by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. Karen blends her personal story and meaningful experiences with each direction of the Medicine Wheel, offering exercises related to each of the four practices. Writes Karen, "I want you to know something really important. You may be feeling stuck in your grief and wondering why you can't seem to get over it. I felt the same way until I realized we do not get over grief. It's not like catching the - u; we aren't sick. There is no cure, and we can't medicate it away. Grief is a state of being that carries energy that you can tap into to create a new life. Just as we use the energy of other newly acquired states of being like marriage or parenthood to transform our lives, we can likewise use the energy of grieving to transform."
The inspiring story of a mother who took unimaginable tragedy and used her grief as a force to do good by transforming the lives of others. When Maria Kefalas’s daughter Calliope was diagnosed with a degenerative, uncurable genetic disease, the last thing Maria expected to discover in herself was a superpower. She and her husband, Pat, were head over heels in love with their youngest daughter, whose spirit, dancing eyes, and appetite for life captured the best of each of them. When they learned that Cal had MLD (metachromatic leukodystrophy), their world was shattered. But as she spent time listening to and learning from Cal, Maria developed the superpower of grief. It made her a fearless warrior for her daughter. And it gave her voice a bell-like clarity—poignant and funny all at once. This superpower of grief also revealed a miracle—not the conventional sort that fuels the prayers of friends and strangers but a realization that, in order to save themselves, Maria and Pat would need to find a way to save others. And so, with their two older children, they set out to raise money so that they, in their son PJ’s words, could “find a cure for Cal’s disease.” They had no way of knowing that a research team in Italy was closing in on an effective gene therapy for MLD. Though the therapy came too late to help Cal, this news would be the start of an unexpected journey that would introduce Maria and her family to world-famous scientists, brilliant doctors, biotech CEOs, a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback, and a wise nun, and it would also involve selling 50 thousand cupcakes. They would travel to the FDA, the NIH, and the halls of Congress in search of a cure that would never save their child. And their lives would become inextricably intertwined with the families of 13 children whose lives would be transformed by the biggest medical breakthrough in a generation. A memoir about heartbreak that is also about joy, Harnessing Grief is both unsparing and generous. Steeped in love, it is a story about possibility.
There exists an undeniable chasm between the capacities of humans and those of animals. Our minds have spawned civilizations and technologies that have changed the face of the Earth, whereas even our closest animal relatives sit unobtrusively in their dwindling habitats. Yet despite longstanding debates, the nature of this apparent gap has remained unclear. What exactly is the difference between our minds and theirs? In The Gap, psychologist Thomas Suddendorf provides a definitive account of the mental qualities that separate humans from other animals, as well as how these differences arose. Drawing on two decades of research on apes, children, and human evolution, he surveys the abilities most often cited as uniquely human -- language, intelligence, morality, culture, theory of mind, and mental time travel -- and finds that two traits account for most of the ways in which our minds appear so distinct: Namely, our open-ended ability to imagine and reflect on scenarios, and our insatiable drive to link our minds together. These two traits explain how our species was able to amplify qualities that we inherited in parallel with our animal counterparts; transforming animal communication into language, memory into mental time travel, sociality into mind reading, problem solving into abstract reasoning, traditions into culture, and empathy into morality. Suddendorf concludes with the provocative suggestion that our unrivalled status may be our own creation -- and that the gap is growing wider not so much because we are becoming smarter but because we are killing off our closest intelligent animal relatives. Weaving together the latest findings in animal behavior, child development, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience, this book will change the way we think about our place in nature. A major argument for reconsidering what makes us human, The Gap is essential reading for anyone interested in our evolutionary origins and our relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom.
What led you to a book about grieving? Is it because you feel like a piece of you is missing and you need to know why you're so broken hearted? Or is it because you know someone who has been bereaved and you want to understand more about grief to help them? Sadly, at some time in our lives we will all be affected by death and loss...If you are affected by loss or know someone grieving, this book is for you...and for them. I think everyone should have a crash course in how to deal with grief, but then I would say that, as I am a bereavement volunteer. If you want to learn a lot of basic facts in a very short time then this book can help you. This little pocket book is full of useful information, guidance, straight-forward theories as well as personal anonymous grief stories to help you when grieving. If you're new to grief, then it will give you an outline of what you can expect, for when you experience a death or significant loss in your life. You will also discover - A useful acronym to remember what grieving is - The many different grief reactions in your mind and body - 3 easy theories to help understand the roots and range of grief reactions - Why grieving is individual and why we all grieve in our way, in our own time - How to cope - Why grieving is about remembering and the many ways you can do this - How to live with grief - How to support those who are grieving Given that grief will visit us all at one time or another, this book will - I hope - help some of you find your personal pathway to understanding and managing your grief as well as supporting those who are grieving. Grief caused by death, loss and change can have a powerful effect on your life. It can be agonising, gut-wrenching, soul destroying and extremely tiring. It can be exhausting. But you need to know it won't always be this way. You won't always feel this way. This little book is a pocket companion which is just what you need when you're feeling overwhelmed with the effects of grief. There is a notes section so you can jot things down as you go along and refer back to them, particularly helpful if your memory and concentration are being affected by grieving. It is a basic introduction to grieving and affordable to gift to friends, family, colleagues and others at a time of sadness and need. It is my heartfelt wisdom and experience condensed into a book, offering my help to you through these difficult days.
In this second volume of his long-anticipated five-volume collection of parashat hashavua commentaries, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks explores these intersections as they relate to universal concerns of freedom, love, responsibility, identity, and destiny. Chief Rabbi Sacks fuses Jewish tradition, Western philosophy, and literature to present a highly developed understanding of the human condition under Gods sovereignty. Erudite and eloquent, Covenant Conversation allows us to experience Chief Rabbi Sacks sophisticated approach to life lived in an ongoing dialogue with the Torah.
This book proposes and explores a novel conceptualisation of the grieving process grounded in evolutionary psychology that integrates cognitive behavioural approaches such as compassion focused therapy, metacognitive awareness, and acceptance and commitment therapy. Starting with an introduction of the historical and theoretical basis for the Principles of Loss model, the book then outlines methods of assessment and describes the processes of formulation and case conceptualisation, with specific guidance on how to navigate these in the context of loss. The book provides an in-depth exploration of the Five-Phase Principles for the Treatment of Loss and Grief (intervention), as well as guidance on the supervision of loss. The chapters, accompanied by case studies, provide an overview of the novel model, followed by specific and tailor-made guidance on assessment (including a novel self-report measure), formulation, treatment, and supervision. This guide is intended for clinicians familiar with or interested in the theory and practice of third-wave cognitive behavioural therapies.