One of the unspoken aspects of mourning concerns the ways that loss affects our intimate relationships and our sexual expressiveness. This text opens these subjects for conversation, with the aim of promoting the trust, care, and respect that enable us to be vulnerable. It purposefully covers a range of topics, including: (1) the meaning of intimacy and the significance of sexuality, providing a basis for the use of these terms throughout the book; (2) death, grief, and differences in sexual orientation, including death and intimacy in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and the losses endured by young people due to gender issues; (3) loss of relationship and restoration of intimacy in families, including pharmacological effects on the grief processes of widowers; grieving a not-so-loved parent; the "layered losses" of infertility and intimacy; and the tolls of war--intimacy and sexuality challenges for soldiers and their families; (4) adjusting to life's losses associated with aging or illness or infirmity, including Alzheimer's and dementia-related illnesses, physical health losses after 50, and intimacy, sex, and hospice--self-determination and dignity at the end of life; and (5) religious bases that have shaped our perspectives for understanding intimacy, sexuality, and healing after loss, and which give us hope--including the spiritual reflections of a rabbi and a Christian voice in defining what is right. Set in a framework that is both psychological and spiritual, the well-researched contributions are intended to acknowledge these experiences both professionally and personally. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography, valuable for research and reference. This book will be of value in undergraduate and graduate courses on thanatology, as well as for anyone interested in knowing more about grief--both those currently bereaved and those who wish to support others in mourning. The contributors appreciate both the importance of our capacities for intimacy and sexuality and our inhibitions and hesitations in giving voice to our needs and concerns, perhaps especially when we are grieving. The information and compassionate understanding they provide encourage us to bridge the gap between the secret and the private and to share what is close to our hearts.

Grief Light is for anyone who is grieving. From her personal perspective on the light side of grief, the author illuminates many of the universal truths of grief through practical, spiritual illustrations and examples from ordinary life. Written in an informal, approachable style, each brief meditation offers grief insight through the rich imagery of stories and scenes from everyday experience, supported by Scripture and a prayer idea. Through these positive, uplifting reflections on life and love and death, you will discern how your faith can grow as a gift of grief through the steadfast love and faithfulness of God. When you read these almost devotionals, you may think, Oh yes, that happened to me or Now I understand more about what it is Im feeling or I thought I was the only one whod ever experienced that or Theres really some plain talk here about human nature. Grief Light also addresses some of the more contemporary, yet seldom fully acknowledged issues that surround grief, including collective/communal grief, incomplete grief, compound grief, and complicated grief. The hope is that the heart and spiritual truths of Grief Light will guide you toward a better understanding of your grief and direct you away from the darkness, toward the light of new life.

Are you ready to love? Are you able to receive love? Living, Loving and Learning to Love More is a powerful, life-changing book which will enhance your understanding of life, love and soul purpose. Jasmine Truelove unexpectedly embarks on a thoughtful exploration of love and spirituality one evening after she fails to recognise her husband. Aided by synchronicity, her devoted husband Ted and her friends, Jasmine discovers that life is about far more than she previously considered. After missing out on life’s greatest joys by trying to do too much, Jasmine enters a whole new world of love as she and her husband set out together on a quest to understand themselves, coupledom, their soul purpose and the world around them. As she learns the importance of quality time, abundance-thinking, self-accountability and faith, Jasmine slowly begins transforming her criteria of what success means to her while conquering her constant fears and worries. Amazed by the many things she has never thought about, Jasmine finds the universe’s loving messages about being present in the moment and adhering to life’s purpose of loving more, opens up an illuminating pathway that will change her life forever.

Many of us fill our lives with so much work, entertainment, and fluff that we fail to consider the reality that our personal journeys on earth must someday come to an end. This collection of essays and articles points out that human existence is a fragile, terminal gift. Accepting that encourages us to live dynamic, purposeful lives. Combining insights from thought leaders in the fields of medicine, mental health, and religion, as well as hospice, funeral directors, and those who have faced life-threatening situations, the writers and editors of this book share their honest, open views about death, dying, and the possibilities of an afterlife. Enormously compelling and easy to read, the book calls us to engage in passionate, meaningful living in the here and now. Start making every day count with Reflections on Mortality. I found the book helpful in setting out so many issues surrounding our death and dying. His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops I found myself asking, Why wasnt a book of this scope and impact available until now? It is a true gift to all of us. Robert J. Wicks, Psy.D., author of Perspective: The Calm within the Storm; Bounce: Living the Resilient Life

Love and Vulnerability: Thinking with Pamela Sue Anderson developed out of the desire for dialogue with the late feminist philosopher Pamela Sue Anderson’s extraordinary, previously unpublished, last work on love and vulnerability. The collection publishes this work for the first time, with a diverse, multidisciplinary, international range of contributors responding to it, to Anderson’s oeuvre as a whole and to her life and death. Anderson’s path-breaking work includes A Feminist Philosophy of Religion (1998) and Re-visioning Gender in Philosophy of Religion: Reason, Love and Epistemic Locatedness (2012). Her last work critiques, then attempts to rebuild, concepts of love and vulnerability. Reason, critical self-reflexivity, emotion, intuition and imagination, myth and narrative all have a role to play. Social justice, friendship, conversation, dialogue, collective work are central to her thinking. Contributors trace the emergence of Anderson’s late thinking, extend her conversations with the history of philosophy and contemporary voices such as hooks and Butler, and bring her work into contact with debates in theology; Continental and analytic philosophy; feminist, queer and transgender theory; postcolonial theory; African-American studies. Discussions engage with the Me Too movement and sexual violence, climate change, sweatshops, neoliberalism, death and dying, and the nature of the human. Originally published as a special issue of the journal, Angelaki, this large, wide-ranging collection, featuring a number of distinguished contributors, makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning interdisciplinary research on interpersonal relations, sympathy and empathy, affect and emotion.

Path of the Novice Mystic provides a unique look into the world of secular mysticism. Dr. Paul Dunion suggests that peace comes when we accept the world’s inherent uncertainties and begin to approach life with elevated curiosity and enthusiasm. Dunion guides you toward maintaining a heightened level of mindfulness in everyday life. He shows how the simple act of being fully present and cultivating a soul practice opens the gates to unity—the essence of the novice secular mystic and the key to finding depth and meaning in life. While his instruction is clear, Dunion does not suggest a cure-all formula. Rather, he encourages honest self-examination and arms you with thoughtful questions that will incite true personal reflection, thereby allowing you to develop a personal philosophy. With this unique blend of psychology, philosophy, and spirituality, Path of the Novice Mystic is sure to open the heart and mind to a more enriching way of life.

A Mother who's life that came crashing down around her in a blink of an eye!!! A Mother's Worst Nightmare....How does a Mother continue to go on living her everyday life, when her beloved son Joseph, was ripped right out of her heart and life......... My Life With My Son Nothing is Stronger than a Mother's Love I cannot believe when I look up at you, and see a beautiful man that use to be my little boy. I am always in awe, when I see the changes in you, but yet it saddens me because that part of my life is over. Yet all the memories that I have, will still bring all the laughter, and this warmness in my heart, and I will always have tears in my eyes. Since you where a baby up until present time, you have always given me so much joy, and so many gifts, that I cannot even count. I dont think you ever realized all the ones you gave me that where from within. We made so many memories together, but the love you gave me, was something so special it will last a lifetime.