Relationship Loss Grief

When renowned author Gail Godwin tripped and broke her neck while watering the dogwood tree in her garden at age eighty-five, a lifetime of writing and publishing behind her and a half-finished novel in tow, Bergman’s idea quickly unfurled in front of her, forcing her to confront a creative life interrupted. In Getting to Know Death, Godwin shares what spoke to her while in a desperate place.

It takes time and space to grieve well, but often our culture doesn't afford us these things. Drawing from her own experience with grief, Natasha Smith invites us into a reflection on what it means to grieve and how to cling to hope even in our darkest moments. Instead of providing quick-fix solutions, this book creates space for us to take time to just sit and grieve, learn, and heal in healthy ways.

When Mark Doty went looking to adopt a small dog, a cuddly creature who might comfort his terminally ill partner, Wally Roberts, he was surprised to find himself returning home from an animal shelter with a full-grown golden retriever, a dog whose "absolute openess of regard", and paw gently offered through the bars of a cage, proved irresistable to him.

As a bank executive, Herb Knoll was known as a man who could get the job done. But when Knoll lost his wife to cancer, he found few resources that could help him recover. The more he learned about the plight of widowers, from high suicide rates to physical and emotional problems, the more he became motivated to create an audiobook with fellow widowers for fellow widowers.

Are you a widow or widower struggling with grief and moving forward? The problem isn't you. It's the grief that is changing the way your brain works (or doesn't). This book is written by a widow, for widowed people trying to navigate the darkness of losing a husband or wife. Many say that grieving the loss of your spouse takes time, but in truth, time, in and of itself, does not heal.

Tyler Feder had just white-knuckled her way through her first year of college when her super cool mom was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Now, with a decade of grief and nervous laughter under her belt, Tyler shares the story of that gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, extremely awkward time in her life. Dancing at the Pity Party is a frank and refreshingly funny look at what it’s like to grieve - for anyone struggling with loss who just wants someone to get it.

What if you knew that compassion was the antidote to healing our hurt, hate-filled world? Would you know how to use it in every circumstance, with family, friends, and strangers alike? Would you be open to doing so, even when it involved acts that may seem unforgivable? Would you be willing to be gentle and sympathetic with yourself?

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us haunted by feelings of anxiety, despair, and even anger. In this audiobook, pioneering therapist Pauline Boss identifies these vague feelings of distress as caused by ambiguous loss, losses that remain unclear and hard to pin down, and thus have no closure. Collectively the world is grieving as the pandemic continues to change our everyday lives.

Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death—yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen, practical advice on how to have these conversations—not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time- and dinner-tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising.

When we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes - war, famine, pandemic - we go in search of consolation. But how do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of lapidary meditations on writers, artists, musicians, and their works - from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi - esteemed writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience.

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.

Cuando la trabajadora social Lisa Keefauver enviudó en 2011, le impresionó descubrir que, aunque todos sufrimos alguna vez, la mayoría de las personas no tiene los conocimientos para lidiar con el duelo. Gracias a su experiencia como terapeuta, pero también como alguien que buscaba ayuda para sobrellevar su propia pérdida, Keefauver se percató de que, muchas veces, las historias de duelo que consumimos nos llevan por el camino equivocado: uno en el que sufrimos de manera innecesaria.

Internationally renowned psychiatrist and author Irvin Yalom has devoted his career to counselling those suffering from anxiety and grief. But never had he faced the need to counsel himself until his wife, esteemed feminist author Marilyn Yalom, was diagnosed with cancer. In A Matter of Death and Life, Marilyn and Irvin share how they took on profound new struggles: Marilyn to die a good death, Irvin to live on without her.

After her mother was killed in a crosswalk, having been hit by a driver who ran a red light, Lori Koidahl questioned, Why me? Furthermore, she wondered, how could another family member have been killed in a car crash? Before she was born, Lori's father died when he fell asleep at the wheel, and when she was 13, her uncle was killed by a distracted driver. In Garden of Grief, Koidahl offers listeners a look into her busy life as a mom and how losing her own mother and becoming a midlife orphan became a catalyst for rebirth and navigating the world in a new way.

Christians today are often not prepared to suffer well and have a short-sighted view of pain and trials. Ken Boa shows how God uses suffering to shape his children for eternity and to grow them in Christlike character. The book of 1 Peter tells us suffering is both a guarantee and comparatively brief; we shouldn't be surprised when it comes to us. The nature of our affliction is not as important as our response to it. God is at work through our hardships and wants to use them to prepare us for eternal life. Suffering can make us bitter or better. Rediscover living hope, present joy, and a glorious future.

Al-Ghazālī's writings were meant to help man to live a life in accordance with the sacred law, and by doing so gain a deeper understanding of its meaning. Al-Ghazali believed in practical-ethical perfection and that by exercising his capacity for reason, man would be drawn to the spiritual alchemy that transforms the soul from worldliness to complete devotion to God. This alone, he believed, could produce ultimate happiness.

When loss leaves you reeling, struggling emotionally and spiritually, Sacred Tears offers support from a Witch's perspective. Courtney Weber provides guidance as you navigate the grief spiral at your own pace. She reassures you that grief is not only necessary, but sacred, and need not be rushed.

We are all curious about the mystery of death. Whether facing our own, assisting a loved one in their last days, or grieving the loss of someone dear to us, we all have questions about dying and what happens to our soul after we depart physical form. In this compassionate and straightforward guide to the spiritual process of dying and what happens after death, psychic medium Salicrow answers the most common questions asked by her clients over her decades of work as a spirit speaker.

These letters may be very disturbing to some. The names have been changed to protect the loved ones left behind. They are in no way meant to make judgments on others or cause more pain and suffering. They are a study of human behavior to help others understand the pain and suffering these people went through and encourage others to offer understanding and help when they can.

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever.... Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation.