Thomas Attig, an internationally acclaimed expert in bereavement and grief, is the author of two books on grieving, How We Grieve and The Heart of Grief, He tells us that bereavement and the grief that accompanies it, affect every aspect of our beings--physical, emotional, social, spiritual, behavioral. Our self-concept, our life story, is forever changed by our loss. In grieving, we relearn our world in every area of life. We learn a new self-identity, but we also find ways to relate to the one we've lost. His books are "heavy" reading, but his prfound understanding of what grief means and how we respond to it is eminently practical.
He views each life as a web of relationships--to objects, places, people, God. When one strand of that complex web is broken, the others are affected. Our spouse's tattered robe, the chair he sat in to watch TV, the music he played on the car radio, the restaurant where we celebrated special occasions, the children we raised together, our friendships, our plans, our dreams--all are reminders of what will never be again.
Attig's website, Grief's Heart (unfortunately, I don't have the symbols needed to link to it, but you can Google it)has excerpts from his books and other writing as well as video of his newest work.
Most important, he invites readers to share their grief stories and will post them on his site. Those of us who blog know the value and the emotional release of writing our experiences. Attig respects those experiences and gives us the opportunity to share them with others.
Here is a site that offers something to all of us who inhabit the widowsphere. I highly recommend that you visit it and partake of Attig's wisdom and comfort.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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4 comments:
Hey there fellow crusader. Nice to meet you. It is great to see this type of post as this is a subject not often talked about, although I know there are quite a few books on the subject..:)
Didn't see a follow option.
Like L'Aussie says people shy away from discussing grief. I recently did a writing workshop with a woman who was writing a book about grief.
Hi there! Back to let you know I'm following now. People don't usually look beyond your last post so you do need to move your followers up near the top.Everyone's in a hurry!
Really enjoyed this post. He, Robert Neimeyer and a growing band of others are bringing death and grief out into the open where it belongs.
Spent last week at a writer's workshop, the following is one of the pieces I wrote. Thought I would share it with you
The Empty Chair
she leans in
searching for the scent
longing for the soft white hair
kissing the empty space
where love once lounged
Tricia
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