Seasons Of My Grief How I Survived And Learned To Thrive In Spite Of Loss Abandonment And Rejection

Through a powerful book of testimony and teaching, the author explores the seasons of grief and ways in which readers can overcome pain to embrace their healing, live authentically, and gain peace. Throughout these pages you will discover how to: Gracefully make room for griefWalk through a new normal in faith Find inner peace in God's presence in the midst of shattered piecesAttain spiritual and emotional support and practical advice to apply to daily lifeWith profound wisdom and biblical reminders of God's love, this book will encourage the hearts of readers to trust God in their different moments of grief. The writer's voice of openness, honesty, and courage truly speaks to the heart of the reader. Seasons of My Grief was written to help people establish an intimate connection with the living Word, God, and the written Word of God, the Bible. This book encourages and emboldens the reader to have faith to believe God daily for a transformed tomorrow.If you've ever experienced the trauma of being rejected by people that you thought you could count on, this is a must read for you. The balance of spiritual and emotional support and practical advice offers the readers a rounded view of the journey toward healing and wholeness. Dr. Gwen's writings are a reflection of her daily quiet time of Bible reading, worshipping, and writing prayer journals. She spends a great deal of time in prayer, reading, and studying different translations of Scripture. Since the deaths of her mom and husband, Dr. Gwen has emerged as a new voice in the world of grief support and recovery. Her primary purpose for writing this book is to help others to live together with grief, grow from the experience, and find peace in God's promises.

When a loved one dies we mourn our loss. We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss? In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with such ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous loss and manage to leave their sadness behind, including those who have lost family members to divorce, immigration, adoption, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. With its message of hope, this eloquent book offers guidance and understanding to those struggling to regain their lives. Table of Contents: 1. Frozen Grief 2. Leaving without Goodbye 3. Goodbye without Leaving 4. Mixed Emotions 5. Ups and Downs 6. The Family Gamble 7. The Turning Point 8. Making Sense out of Ambiguity 9. The Benefit of a Doubt Notes Acknowledgments Reviews of this book: You will find yourself thinking about the issues discussed in this book long after you put it down and perhaps wishing you had extra copies for friends and family members who might benefit from knowing that their sorrows are not unique...This book's value lies in its giving a name to a force many of us will confront--sadly, more than once--and providing personal stories based on 20 years of interviews and research. --Pamela Gerhardt, Washington Post Reviews of this book: A compassionate exploration of the effects of ambiguous loss and how those experiencing it handle this most devastating of losses ... Boss's approach is to encourage families to talk together, to reach a consensus about how to mourn that which has been lost and how to celebrate that which remains. Her simple stories of families doing just that contain lessons for all. Insightful, practical, and refreshingly free of psychobabble. --Kirkus Review Reviews of this book: Engagingly written and richly rewarding, this title presents what Boss has learned from many years of treating individuals and families suffering from uncertain or incomplete loss...The obvious depth of the author's understanding of sufferers of ambiguous loss and the facility with which she communicates that understanding make this a book to be recommended. --R. R. Cornellius, Choice Reviews of this book: Written for a wide readership, the concepts of ambiguous loss take immediate form through the many provocative examples and stories Boss includes, All readers will find stories with which they will relate...Sensitive, grounded and practical, this book should, in my estimation, be required reading for family practitioners. --Ted Bowman, Family Forum Reviews of this book: Dr. Boss describes [the] all-too-common phenomenon [of unresolved grief] as resulting from either of two circumstances: when the lost person is still physically present but emotionally absent or when the lost person is physically absent but still emotionally present. In addition to senility, physical presence but psychological absence may result, for example, when a person is suffering from a serious mental disorder like schizophrenia or depression or debilitating neurological damage from an accident or severe stroke, when a person abuses drugs or alcohol, when a child is autistic or when a spouse is a workaholic who is not really 'there' even when he or she is at home...Cases of physical absence with continuing psychological presence typically occur when a soldier is missing in action, when a child disappears and is not found, when a former lover or spouse is still very much missed, when a child 'loses' a parent to divorce or when people are separated from their loved ones by immigration...Professionals familiar with Dr. Boss's work emphasised that people suffering from ambiguous loss were not mentally ill, but were just stuck and needed help getting past the barrier or unresolved grief so that they could get on with their lives. --Asian Age Combining her talents as a compassionate family therapist and a creative researcher, Pauline Boss eloquently shows the many and complex ways that people can cope with the inevitable losses in contemporary family life. A wise book, and certain to become a classic. --Constance R. Ahrons, author of The Good Divorce A powerful and healing book. Families experiencing ambiguous loss will find strategies for seeing what aspects of their loved ones remain, and for understanding and grieving what they have lost. Pauline Boss offers us both insight and clarity. --Kathy Weingarten, Ph.D, The Family Institute of Cambridge, Harvard Medical School

Like life, grief has its own set of seasons. We all will eventually face them head-on, in our own time and at our own pace. No matter what our loss, we must learn how to endure and survive our seasons in order to live fully again. In a memoir that follows the metaphor of the seasons, Ernestine Rose provides an enlightening glimpse into her walk through grief after her beloved husband of forty-one years passed away in 2016. Beginning with the season of summer, Ernestine first recounts the year preceding Art’s death as he bravely battled sarcoidosis and eventually succumbed to the disease. As she leads others through the often cold and lonely seasons of autumn and winter, Ernestine details how she grieved her monumental loss and slowly learned how to live without Art. Finally as she reveals her entrance into spring, Ernestine discloses how she found renewal, hope, and faith in a new beginning while gently reminding others that we all heal in our own time. Seasons is the true story of a widow’s journey through the seasons of grief that shares words of wisdom that will help those in mourning to learn to live, love, and dance again.

An insightful, compassionate account of the grieving process that helps us through the pain and isolation experienced with the loss of a loved one.. We're never really prepared for the loss of someone we love. Thrown into a state of emotional chaos we experience rage, guilt, anxiety, and intense sadness all at once. It's the oldest story in the world, we tell ourselves -- millions of people have had to cope with this before -- and yet, we always believe that what we are experiencing is unique to us. We feel isolated in our anguish and often ashamed of what we are feeling. A profoundly compassionate and insightful book, Surviving Grief. & Learning to Live Again offers you the support and understanding you need to get you through this difficult time. Written by Dr. Catherine Sanders, a therapist and researcher specializing in bereavement issues and one who has lived through the loss of close family members, it helps you to see that what you are feeling is part of a natural process of readjustment and renewal. According to Dr. Sanders, grieving, like any other natural regenerative process, must be allowed to run its proper course if we are ever to regain our equilibrium and continue on with our lives. To help us better understand the process, she describes the five universal phases of grief: Shock, Awareness of Loss, Conservation and The Need to Withdraw, Healing, and Renewal, and guides us through each. Drawing directly from her own experiences and those of her clients and her research studies, she delves deeply and compassionately into the different experiences of grief, and talks about what it means to lose a mate, a parent, or a child. And she discusses the factors that can have an influence on the grieving process, such as age, gender, and the circumstances surrounding the loved one's death.

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Grief: You Can Survive It Here's How Do you wake up in the morning feeling that showering and dressing require more energy than you have? Are you wondering what happened to your old self and when, or if, it might be returning? Does life feel overwhelming and, at times, convince you that you're going crazy? Is time passing and the horrible imprints that you've tried so hard not to recall, still linger, despite promises from others that time would heal your heart? Are you keeping yourself busy, doing anything so that thoughts about it, won't fill you with anger or helplessness or, "Oh no, not guilt!?" Now, for probably the first time in your life, are efforts to find your way through this unfamiliar territory that is your grief, leaving you more confused and lost than when you initially embarked on this journey? Then this book is the rudder, the guide that you have been searching for. You can survive the terrible event that has stolen your life. This book gives you the emotional map needed to steer you through and beyond the troubling, unchartered territory that is your loss and grief.

Mrs. Louise Mallard, afflicted with a heart condition, reflects on the death of her husband from the safety of her locked room. Originally published in Vogue magazine, “The Story of an Hour” was retitled as “The Dream of an Hour,” when it was published amid much controversy under its new title a year later in St. Louis Life. “The Story of an Hour” was adapted to film in The Joy That Kills by director Tina Rathbone, which was part of a PBS anthology called American Playhouse. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Sandy Peckinpah’s sixteen-year old son woke up with a fever and was dead the next morning of bacterial meningitis... her life changed forever. She found herself in the depths of unimaginable despair. Then, someone gave her a journal, and writing opened her journey of self-discovery in learning how to live life without her beautiful child. Words illuminated her path of discovery and she began to document the things that helped her, and others like her, to find resilience. This is a practical, inspirational guide to coping with the many facets of bereavement; learning how to talk about your loss, the aftermath of sorrow, handling fear and anger, helping your living children adjust, strengthening your marriage, experiencing miracles, and the promise that you will regain a quality of life where you’ll feel joy once again. If you’ve lost a child or know someone who has, this story is one you’ll relate to and find comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Sandy is a mother who has experienced it, and she’s a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist® from the Grief Recovery Institute® in Los Angeles.