This book brings together the most popular and thought-provoking Insights on Death & Dying columns written by internationally acclaimed thanatologist Joy Ufema for the Nursing journal. The book offers the kind of thoughtful advice that only a seasoned practitioner skilled in the palliative arts could provide. The preface presents a history of thanatology and explains why it's such an important part of today's health care landscape. The body of the book consists of ten themed chapters filled with Joy Ufema's personal, first-hand accounts of how she helped patients, families, and co-workers through the most stressful times in their lives.
Addresses the universal question of how we can achieve meaningful lives and peaceful deaths. The Dalai Lama says we must learn to cultivate compassion and positive thoughts and actions.
What Does Dead Mean? is a beautifully illustrated book that guides children gently through 17 of the 'big' questions they often ask about death and dying. Questions such as 'Is being dead like sleeping?', 'Why do people have to die?' and 'Where do dead people go?' are answered simply, truthfully and clearly to help adults explain to children what happens when someone dies. Prompts encourage children to explore the concepts by talking about, drawing or painting what they think or feel about the questions and answers. Suitable for children aged 4+, this is an ideal book for parents and carers to read with their children, as well as teachers, therapists and counsellors working with young children.
My true desire is that this book impacts many, that it impacts you, and that as you read the words that follow, they change your life. You begin to open your mind and heart, and through the reading of these humble words, you feel your life shift. You begin to understand what it feels like to release expectations, and as you do, your suffering begins to lighten until it floats away like a feather in the wind. I further wish that as you work through forgiving others and yourself that you begin to feel a change in your life. That with each act of forgiveness the burden of life lifts, and you begin to experience a sense of joy, peace, and love in your life. I wish that with each chapter, you feel the joy in living and the joy in dying. Please take a chance, read this book, risk opening your heart, and allowing the words to touch you. You will see things in your life change and shift, and your suffering may be lifted. If the words in this book help accomplish that one single thing in your life, then this book has done exactly what I wished it would do. Thank you to all who dare to experience The Joy of Dying.
The first book to validate the meaningful dreams and visions that bring comfort as death nears. Christopher Kerr is a hospice doctor. All of his patients die. Yet he has cared for thousands of patients who, in the face of death, speak of love and grace. Beyond the physical realities of dying are unseen processes that are remarkably life-affirming. These include dreams that are unlike any regular dream. Described as "more real than real," these end-of-life experiences resurrect past relationships, meaningful events and themes of love and forgiveness; they restore life's meaning and mark the transition from distress to comfort and acceptance. Drawing on interviews with over 1,400 patients and more than a decade of quantified data, Dr. Kerr reveals that pre-death dreams and visions are extraordinary occurrences that humanize the dying process. He shares how his patients' stories point to death as not solely about the end of life, but as the final chapter of humanity's transcendence. Kerr's book also illuminates the benefits of these phenomena for the bereaved, who find solace in seeing their loved ones pass with a sense of calm closure. Beautifully written, with astonishing real-life characters and stories, this book is at its heart a celebration of our power to reclaim the dying process as a deeply meaningful one. Death Is But a Dream is an important contribution to our understanding of medicine's and humanity's greatest mystery.
A few days before Thanksgiving 2014, author Chris Stepien found himself in an oncologist s office. But he wasn't the patient. Stepien's wife, Ellen, was just beginning her battle with aggressive breast cancer. That day, while listening to the oncologist's treatment strategy, Stepien began writing Dying to Be Happy: Discovering the Truth About Life. In the pages of this book, a brush with a life-threatening disease sparks a frank discussion on mortality. The author explores the prospects of embracing death on a daily basis versus denying it. He encourages readers to follow the advice of Jesus Christ: always be ready for the end of life. Along the way, Stepien highlights a spectrum of short, true stories where people rise above the fear of death, including the harrowing account of a child who survived the Holocaust -- Stepien's own mother. But Dying to Be Happy is more than an anthology of grim tales and close calls. It beckons readers to admit the inescapability of death in order to find true joy in this life and the next.
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
Steve Hayner was serving as president of Columbia Seminary and was healthy and fit when he found out he had terminal pancreatic cancer. These pages, including reflections from some of those closest to Steve and his wife Sharol, offer us a hope-filled glimpse into what it means to walk with God in honesty, with joy, even through great pain.
"Built on her ... Modern Love column, 'When a Couch is More Than a Couch' (9/23/2016), a ... memoir of living meaningfully with 'death in the room' by the 38-year-old great-great-great granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson--mother to two young boys, wife of 16 years--after her terminal cancer diagnosis"--
Part of the bestselling Emotionally Healthy Spirituality book collection, The Emotionally Healthy Woman provides women a way out of surface-level spirituality to genuine freedom in Christ. Geri Scazzero knew there was something desperately wrong with her life. She felt like a single parent raising her four young daughters alone. She finally told her husband, "I quit," and left the thriving church he pastored, beginning a journey that transformed her and her marriage for the better. This book is for every woman who thinks, "I can’t keep pretending everything is fine!" Geri speaks like a friend as she uses personal stories and biblical principles to help you find your way out of superficial spirituality and move to a deep, meaningful, lifechanging relationship with God. And the journey begins by quitting. Geri quit being afraid of what others think. She quit lying. She quit denying her anger and sadness. She quit living someone else's life. When you quit those things that are damaging to your soul or the souls of others, you are freed up to choose other ways of being and relating that are rooted in love and lead to life. When you quit for the right reasons, at the right time, and in the right way, you're on the path not only to emotional health, but also to the true purpose of your life. Check out the full line of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality books dedicated to many different key areas of life. Workbooks, study guides, curriculum, and Spanish editions are also available.
