Relationship Loss Grief

An inspiring, informative, and practical guide to navigating end-of-life issues, by a groundbreaking expert in the field and the New York Times best-selling author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door. Katy Butler argues that we have lost touch with the “art of dying” as practiced by our ancestors, yet we still hunger for rites of passage and a sense of the sacred, especially in the important life transitions of aging and dying.

As a hospice chaplain, Kerry Egan didn't offer sermons or prayers unless they were requested; in fact, she found, the dying rarely want to talk about God, at least not overtly. Instead she discovered she'd been granted an invaluable chance to witness firsthand what she calls the "spiritual work of dying" - the work of finding or making meaning of one's life, the experiences it's contained, and the people who have touched it, the betrayals, wounds, unfinished business, and unrealized dreams.

Elaborar un duelo no es tarea sencilla, algunos quieren entender el proceso fríamente, otros optan por seguir al corazón y entregarse a todos los sentimientos y emociones que de la pérdida se generan. Pero hay un tercer grupo, aquellos que deciden que lo que están viviendo no los va a destruir, sino a reconstruirlos en mejores personas.

The Wound Makes the Medicine is Lighthorse’s deepest and most personal work yet. A series of healing remedies in thought and prose, the book centers on the internal challenges of suffering and offers affirmations for being with pain rather than avoiding it. The Wound Makes the Medicine helps create conditions for change within, without forcing or expecting transformation.

For most of us, there is no harder life experience than caring for a loved one who is dying. Suzanne O'Brien realized this earlier than most during her her time working as a nurse in hospice care, often offered as a comforting alternative to a sterile hospital environment. But Suzanne saw the real financial and staffing limitation that came with hospice, and, realizing this option didn't provide all the answers, wanted to take it a step further, providing her patients and their families with the tools to approach the death of a loved one with grace, dignity, knowledge, and compassion.

The author describes the progress of his grief from the shock of learning of his son's accidental death to his final resignation a year later.

Four simple phrases - "Please forgive me", "I forgive you", "Thank you", and "I love you" - carry enormous power to mend and nurture our relationships and inner lives. These four phrases and the sentiments they convey provide a path to emotional well-being, guiding us through interpersonal difficulties to life with integrity and grace. Dr. Ira Byock, an international leader in palliative care, explains how we can practice these life-affirming words in our day-to-day lives.

Suicide would appear to be the last taboo. Even incest is now discussed freely in popular media, but the suicide of a loved one is still an act most people are unable to talk about or even admit to their closest family or friends. This is just one of the many painful and paralyzing truths that author Carla Fine discovered when her husband, a successful young physician, took his own life in December 1989. And being unable to speak openly and honestly about the cause of her pain made it all the more difficult for her to survive.

Join former Navy Commander and evidential medium Suzanne Giesemann and her husband, Ty, a retired US Navy captain, on a healing journey with three other couples, brought together by their children in the spirit world. These inspiring parents serve as shining examples of those who have experienced the devastating loss of a child, but whose joy in life has been restored through the awareness that their children continue to participate actively in their lives.

Meghan Riordan Jarvis lived a charmed childhood with her large Irish-Catholic family: loving parents, a house full of siblings, a top-tier education, and summers on Cape Cod. And yet, loss was part of her story from the beginning. In therapy in her 20s after a break-up, Meghan discovered how the silence surrounding a childhood tragedy had laid the groundwork for a life spent trying to keep other people happy and avoiding any type of risk, including love. End of the Hour is for anyone who has experienced the unpredictable, lasting power of grief—and wondered how they’d ever get through it.

Everyone will experience grief at some point in their lives. There is no one answer to overcoming the grieving process, but understanding it is key. According to The 5 Stages of Grief, there are five stages that a person goes through after a loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each stage has its own challenges and needs that must be addressed in order to move on. However, by recognizing these early signs and addressing them head-on, most people can overcome their grief and move on with their lives.

When Steph Catudal met her husband Rivs, she thought that the love, stability, and warmth she shared with her husband had finally dispelled her pent-up anger and grief over the loss of her father and her faith. But when Rivs became ill and was put into coma at the height of the pandemic, the painful memories of her childhood—watching her father die of cancer—came flooding back.

This award-winning book has been hailed as the seminal work in the field. And now the fourth newly revised and expanded edition offers so much more to the bereaving pet owner. This edition also includes a significant new way of considering the meaning of afterlife for us and our pets. It discusses the topic from a 21st-century scientific perspective that is very different from existing religious or metaphysical ones, offering a new comfort to skeptics and agnostics as well.

Losing one’s dog is one of the most difficult experiences we go through and it’s hard to find solace. However, the profound, four-legged narrator of I’m Still Here has nothing but good news for humans. The free verse is equally rhapsodic about the eternal nature of our souls and the amazing sound of crinkly wrappers that means cheese is about to be sliced. This very good dog proclaims that love never dies, that we will meet again, and that if you ever doubted that humans are magnificent creatures, look no further than the humble ball.

There is little in life that rocks us like the death of a husband or wife. Whether you're feeling alone, drowning under an ocean of emotions, or you've worked your way through to the darkest nights of the soul and are now wondering how to get on with your life, you'll find comfort and guidance from the authors of this book. One a clinical psychologist, the other a pastor and professor, both suffered the loss of a spouse at a relatively young age.

The Buddhist approach to death can be of great benefit to people of all backgrounds - as has been demonstrated time and again in Joan Halifax's decades of work with the dying and their caregivers. Inspired by traditional Buddhist teachings, her work is a source of wisdom for all those who are charged with a dying person's care, facing their own death, or wishing to explore and contemplate the transformative power of the dying process.

In this practical and compassionate guide, death doula educator Anne-Marie Keppel incorporates ancient and modern techniques, mindfulness practices, and herbal support to show how anyone can care for the dying, whether at home, in hospice, or even in the ICU. She demystifies the dying process by explaining what the body goes through during end of life and presents practices for emotional soothing and other ways to reduce stress and anxiety during the active dying process.

Theresa Caputo, TLC’s Long Island Medium and the three-time New York Times best-selling author, teaches us how to ritualize and recover from the daily losses in our lives.

Want to learn more about caring for someone at end of life? Discover the End of Life Guideline Series by Barbara Karnes. It is a compilation of five of our most popular hospice and palliative care books that prepares its listeners for the natural, normal process of dying and grief. The series includes, A Time to Live: Living with a Life Threatening Illness, for the newly diagnosed facing a life limiting illness. It addresses issues of comfort, nutrition, and sleep as they relate to the palliative care patient.

All change and loss involves grief. In this difficult season of the coronavirus pandemic, understanding how to grieve - and help others grieve - is more essential than ever. The Grief Club is Melody Beattie's profoundly personal, powerfully healing book to help listeners through life's most difficult times.