"Remember me with tears and laughter. Remember me though it hurts to do so, because the pain you have is equal to the love we shared. There is no goodbye if you carry me in your heart. Remember all the joy we shared, because there was so much of it for both of us." Herbie Longfellow Alderdice Are you a dog owner who is in the process of losing your best friend to illness? Or have you lost your beloved friend and you are struggling to get over them? Pet bereavement is tough. Not everyone sympathises with you. Jeannie Wycherley chose to write this book after the loss of her beloved boy, Herbie, because she was hurt by the repetition of the phrase, "he was just a dog." She realised that her grief transcended that tired notion - one tritely rolled out by people who think they're being helpful and supportive, failing to realise the guilt and shame many pet owners already experience when they are locked deep in mourning. 'Losing my Best Friend: thoughtful support for those affected by dog bereavement or pet loss' offers practical advice about what to do when your dog passes away, including tips on helping your children or other pets cope with the loss, designing your own ceremony to celebrate your dog's life, and creating memorials. In these pages Jeannie Wycherley has created a loving tribute to Herbie, and delivers support with a light and loving touch that validates what you're going through.
Praise for the book: "Losing Your Best Friend covers one of the most ignored emotional issues in America today. Our high speed society causes 20 million households to change addresses annually. No one knows the emotional damage caused by friends losing touch with each other. This book not only addresses different aspects of losing your buddy but it gives ideas on how to heal yourself when you lose a dear friend." Glen Hamilton "I don't usually cry, but I cried at some of the histories of the people in this book because their stories are my story. I lost my dad at an early age. My best friend in high school dropped out of my life. This book answered several of my life-long emotional aches." Frank Archer "This is one heck of a powerful book! It's a must read for anyone that has lost a friend or parent. It will give you answers that you may not have thought about. It will touch your heart and you will learn from their experiences. It also shows you what you can do if you suffer conflict with your friend's wife or girlfriend." Jonathan Runy "I couldn't put this book down! It spoke to me and a lifetime of my thinking that I had lost several of my friends because it was my fault. Finally, somebody wrote about the pain of losing a friend as well as the deeper meanings of friendships." Howard Jones "Relationships are the cornerstones of our lives. Losing a friend or family member is one of the biggest traumas we face in life. This collage of stories about losing a friend provides you with tools to deal with your own heartbreak. Whatever your age or situation, you will find this book profoundly interesting as well as touching. Read it to help you with your own friendship issues." Al Wilson
Men, jobs, children, personal crises, irreconcilable social gaps—these are just a few of the strange and confusing reasons which may cause a female friendship to end. No matter the cause, the breakup of a female friendship leaves a woman devastated and asking herself difficult questions. Was someone to blame? Is the friendship worth fighting for? How can I prevent this from ever happening again? Even more upsetting is that women suffering from broken friendships often have no one to confide in; while the loss of a romantic partner garners sympathy among peers, discussing the loss of a platonic friend is often impossible without making other friends jealous or uncomfortable. Written by journalist and psychologist Irene Levine, Ph.D., Best Friends Forever is an uplifting and heroically honest book for abandoned friends seeking solace. Dr. Levine draws from the personal testimonials of thousands of women to provide anecdotes and groundbreaking solutions to these complicated situations. Offering tools for personal assessment, case stories, and actionable advice for saving, ending, or re-evaluating a relationship, Levine shows that breakups are sometimes inevitable. Although the dissolution of female friendships can be difficult, Best Friends Forever teaches women to stop blaming themselves and probing the wounds, and that the sad experience of a broken friendship can make them stronger people, and more able to handle their relationships with wisdom.
With the constant connectivity of today’s world, it’s never been easier to meet people and make new friends, but it’s also never been harder to form meaningful friendships. In Frientimacy, award-winning speaker Shasta Nelson shows how anyone can form stronger, more meaningful friendships, marked by a level of trust she calls "frientimacy.” Shasta explores the most common complaints and conflicts facing female friendships today, and lays out strategies for overcoming these pitfalls to create deeper, supportive relationships that last for the long-term. Shasta is the founder of girlfriendcircles.com, a community of women seeking stronger, more fulfilling friendships, and the author of Friendships Don’t Just Happen. In Frientimacy, she teaches readers to reject the impulse to pull away from friendships that aren’t instantly and constantly gratifying. With a warm, engaging, and inspiring voice, she shows how friendships built on dedication and commitment can lead to enriched relationships, stronger and more meaningful ties, and an overall increase in mental health. Frientimacy is more than just a call for deeper connection between friends; it’s a blueprint for turning simple friendships into true bonds and for the meaningful and satisfying relationships that come with them.
This essential go-to guide reveals how women can enhance their lives by creating valuable friendships in today’s busy, mobile world, from nationally recognized friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com. Every woman is searching for a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life. Many realize the significant role that an intimate, tightly knit circle of friends plays in creating a more fulfilling life, but with hectic schedules, frequent moves, and life changes, it’s more important than ever for women to establish natural, meaningful friendships that will contribute to their overall wellbeing. In Friendships Don’t Just Happen!, Shasta Nelson, friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, reveals the most important proven steps, processes, and secrets vital to establishing the five different levels of friendships, or Circles of Connectedness, that women—no matter their age or relationship status—are longing for in today’s stressful and mobile culture. This revolutionary, engaging guide will also benefit women who already feel rooted to fabulous friends, with insightful principles that will help them maintain and enhance their current friendships. Full of practical how-to tips, fun activities, guiding questions, and step-by-step instructions, Friendships Don’t Just Happen! highlights several areas of developing lasting friendships, teaching women how to: Evaluate their current circle of friends Recognize what types of friends they are seeking based on career, interests, location, and relationship status Create a prioritized friendship action plan Find extraordinary friends—where to look and how to approach them Take initiative to jumpstart friendships and face fears of rejection Establish “frientimacy,” trust, and happiness through conversation and activities Maintain meaningful friendships and determine which ones are worthwhile Excerpt from Friendships Don't Just Happen: There is a lie out there that real friendship just happens. When I was new to San Francisco eight years ago, I remember standing at a café window on Polk Street watching a group of women inside, huddled around a table laughing. Like the puppy dog at the pound, I looked through the glass, wishing someone would pick me to be theirs. I had a phone full of far-flung friends’ phone numbers, but I didn’t yet know anyone I could just sit and laugh with in a café. It hit me how very hard the friendship process is. I’m an outgoing, socially comfortable woman with a long line of good friendships behind me. And yet I stood there feeling very lonely. And insecure. And exhausted at just the idea of how far I was from that reality. I knew I couldn’t just walk in there and introduce myself to them. “Hi! You look like fun women, can I join you?” I would have been met with stares of pity. No one wants to seem desperate, even if we are. We don’t have platonic pick-up lines memorized. Flirting for friends seems creepy. Asking for her phone number like we’re going to call her up for a Saturday night date is just plain weird. All the batting of my eyelashes wasn’t going to send the right signals. And so I turned away from the scene of laughter and walked away. No, unfortunately, friendships don’t just happen. We Value Belonging Friendships may not happen automatically, but what we crave about them sure seems to! We all want to belong—that need to be connected to others is an inherent desire. We live our entire lives trying to fit in, be known, attract acceptance, and experience intimacy. We desperately want to have others care about us. This book is about that hunger. And more pointedly, it is about listening to it and learning how to fulfill it.
When Tyler Dunning's best friend is killed in a terrorist attack, the experience forces him to confront grief, depression, and his own destructive tendencies. To cope he turns to travel, wandering the United States and crossing paths with a suicidal shaman, a Cambodian alien hunter, and off-the-grid meth addicts. He weathers an Atlantic hurricane, endures the Black Rock Desert, and attempts summiting Longs Peak, the highest point in northern Colorado, convinced that by overcoming the mountain he can overcome loss. But things do not go as planned. This is a book of goodbyes, of migration, of achieving restoration--a five-year journey founded upon coming-of-age heartache, the loss of innocence, and finding hope in our natural world. Yet just when you think Tyler has come to terms with the passing of more friends--to rare disease, accidental drowning, and self-destruction--you won't believe the final lesson death has in store for him.
Had enough of that bridezilla? Feeling alone in a new city? Dealing with the trauma of the worst breakup ever—with someone you never even made out with? We've heard the path to fulfillment has much to do with relationships. But while it's often thought that for young women, it's all about finding the right man, real women beg to differ: It's friendships that are at the heart of happiness. Unfortunately, they're also at the heart of drama, stress, and sometimes not-so-great escapades after that fifth martini. And, technology, from texting to Facebook, has made all friendships more complicated than ever. At last comes The Friendship Fix, jam-packed with practical ways to improve your life by improving your circle. From dealing with friends-with-benefits to coworkers from the dark side, from feeling alone to being desperate to defriend a few dozen people, Andrea Bonior, Ph.D. helps you make the most of your friendships, whether they be old, new, online, or in person.
Two best friends grow up—and grow apart—in this innovative contemporary YA novel Told in dual timelines—half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backward—We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood besties. At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they’re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce. Funny, honest, and full of heart, We Used to Be Friends tells of the pains of growing up and growing apart.
