Honouring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal by Alexandra Kennedy
2014 trade paperback and ebook, New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Available at Halifax Public Libraries, Chapters and Amazon
A compact (15.5 cm high by 11 cm wide), 139-page book that focuses on the nature of grief and what we can expect; creating a 'sanctuary;' healing old hurts, saying good-bye and expressing love; and recreating our lives after loss. Honoring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal is a secular work...
2014 trade paperback and ebook, New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Available at Halifax Public Libraries, Chapters and Amazon
A compact (15.5 cm high by 11 cm wide), 139-page book that focuses on the nature of grief and what we can expect; creating a 'sanctuary;' healing old hurts, saying good-bye and expressing love; and recreating our lives after loss. Honoring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal is a secular work...
Thoughts on the resource
A soulful, gentle book clearly written with readers' gradual transition from fresh grief to 'integrated' grief in mind. Its page-by-page style makes concentrating and remembering attainable. This book highlights the concept of spending daily time to reflect on grief -- less than 10 minutes at the beginning, working up to 20 or 30 minutes -- in a quiet, private 'sanctuary' in a corner of the home or backyard. The author offers practical and open-ended suggestions for creating a sanctuary and connecting with loved ones. She explores topics like journaling, dialoging, letter writing, body scanning, dreams, fears, ungrieved losses and generational loss and encourages readers to experiment and interpret their findings.
Creating a daily sanctuary -- or a sanctuary that is used as much as possible -- is an intriguing idea. I can see this book becoming a staple for some people, one that gets picked up again and again in the first year after a death and the years following, too. This book has the rare quality of helping readers interpret what their integrated grief might look like as they travel through their grief journey.
Excerpts from Honoring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal that stayed with me:
A soulful, gentle book clearly written with readers' gradual transition from fresh grief to 'integrated' grief in mind. Its page-by-page style makes concentrating and remembering attainable. This book highlights the concept of spending daily time to reflect on grief -- less than 10 minutes at the beginning, working up to 20 or 30 minutes -- in a quiet, private 'sanctuary' in a corner of the home or backyard. The author offers practical and open-ended suggestions for creating a sanctuary and connecting with loved ones. She explores topics like journaling, dialoging, letter writing, body scanning, dreams, fears, ungrieved losses and generational loss and encourages readers to experiment and interpret their findings.
Creating a daily sanctuary -- or a sanctuary that is used as much as possible -- is an intriguing idea. I can see this book becoming a staple for some people, one that gets picked up again and again in the first year after a death and the years following, too. This book has the rare quality of helping readers interpret what their integrated grief might look like as they travel through their grief journey.
Excerpts from Honoring Grief: Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal that stayed with me:
Grief changes us. We are no longer the person we were, nor are we the person we will be. Grief transforms our lives. We find that what was true about our lives is no longer true. Everything is different; we see with new eyes. What used to be important no longer matters to us. We walk on new, fertile ground (p. 113).
As you dive into your grief, you may at first encounter anger. Going deeper, you may discover a reservoir of sadness -- and under that, a vast sea of love (p. 96).
Grief opens us inward to new depths -- but also outward to new vistas (p. 71).
