Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand
280 pages
English language
Published July 7, 2017 by Sounds True, Incorporated.
I read this as we prepare to acknowledge & feel the grief of the past year and change, and while the writing style wasn’t my absolute fave, there’s a ton of good advice in here, particularly around the need to not heal/fix or be “resilient” but to instead inhabit the changed world & selves we are now.
I wish this book was everywhere. I wish it was as omnipresent and easy to find as a cup of coffee. I wish it actually was available anywhere you go for a cup of coffee. In every library, bookstore, little free library, grocery or convenient store, hotel room, post office, airport terminal or train station, park bench, bus stop, public restroom, or taxi. It should be everywhere. So that the moment you need it - and you either need it right now or could've used it years ago (it's not too late) or inevitably will some day - your eyes need only fall on it, no searching required.
No matter what our circumstances in life, grief and loss are universal. We all have or will experience it personally and, without even thinking about it, we are all affected by the grief and loss experienced by those around us.
Grief isolates …
I wish this book was everywhere. I wish it was as omnipresent and easy to find as a cup of coffee. I wish it actually was available anywhere you go for a cup of coffee. In every library, bookstore, little free library, grocery or convenient store, hotel room, post office, airport terminal or train station, park bench, bus stop, public restroom, or taxi. It should be everywhere. So that the moment you need it - and you either need it right now or could've used it years ago (it's not too late) or inevitably will some day - your eyes need only fall on it, no searching required.
No matter what our circumstances in life, grief and loss are universal. We all have or will experience it personally and, without even thinking about it, we are all affected by the grief and loss experienced by those around us.
Grief isolates like nothing else and this book is a very honest and empathetic road map for navigating that profoundly painful, lonely, and disorienting realm. But this road map is not meant to lead you out of grief. There are no platitudes, diminishing observations, or false promises that it'll all be over and back to normal eventually. Grief is not a place from which we must (let alone can) escape. This book is a map to help you grieve. To help you endure what seems unendurable.
For anyone who knows a grieving person, this book is an invaluable guide for how to best support their loved one during an impossibly difficult time.
If you are grieving and lack the energy or simply don't know what to say to those who are trying to help you, this book will speak on your behalf, an ambassador for the bereaved.
As Megan says, "Some things cannot be fixed. They can only be carried." This book, born of grief, born of loss, born of love, exists to help us carry our own pain and help carry each other's. With love.
