Cheryl Lafferty Eckl - A Beautiful Grief: Reflections on Letting Go

PRAISE FOR A BEAUTIFUL GRIEF

FIRST PRIZE WINNER - INSPIRATIONAL CATEGORY!

20th annual Writers Digest Book Awards
2013 CIPA EVVY Award
2013 Nautilus Silver Award

WRITERS DIGEST JUDGES COMMENTARY

The book is well designed, well written, and really stood out from all the other entries in the spiritual category. While most focus on Christianity, Ms. Eckl is all-inclusive and subtle. She gently guides her readers through their grief, by offering up her own experience and insights from her healing process.

Its a lovely book that will both nurture and inspire those experiencing the loss of a loved one, but it would also appeal to anyone, as everyone knows someone experiencing grief. The author is to be commended for her spare eloquence. She makes it seem easy, but it is the selection of details, the zen-like approach, and the completion of thoughts that makes this book a standout.

Its an ideal format in that someone can pick it up and read one or two chapters relevant to their own process and go back again and again for reinforcement or to find sections that relate to where they are in the process. Id definitely give this to anyone I knew who was in a period of grief.

REVIEW FROM THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

A Beautiful Grief: Reflections on Letting Go is a prize-winning book written expressly to offer comfort and solace to those experiencing grief from the loss of a loved one.

Author Cheryl Lafferty Eckl shares her personal sorrow of losing her beloved husband to colon cancer, and teaches the reader how to love our way through to griefs natural conclusion, understanding the power of renewal, acceptance, and hope in moments of great despair. Empathic and compassionate, A Beautiful Grief is highly recommended.

FROM REVIEW BY WILLIAM G. HOY, PH.D. ASSOCIATION FOR DEATH EDUCATION & COUNSELING

These 24 highly readable chapters offer hope and direction for grieving people and inspiration for the professionals and volunteers who care for grieving people. [Ms. Eckls] writing paints colorfully on the canvas of a bereaved heart, creatively addressing the questions with which grieving people struggle but about which they are often afraid to speak.

Books by Cheryl Lafferty Eckl

Personal Growth & Transformation

A Beautiful Death:

Keeping the Promise of Love

A Beautiful Grief:

Reflections on Letting Go

The LIGHT Process:

Living on the Razors Edge of Change

Wise Inner Counselor Books

Reflections on Being Your True Self in Any Situation

Reflections on Doing Your Great Work in Any Occupation

Reflections on Ineffable Love: from loss through grief to joy

Poetry for Inspiration & Beauty

Poetics of Soul & Fire

Bridge to the Otherworld

Idylls from the Garden of Spiritual Delights & Healing

Sparks of Celtic Mystery:

soul poems from ire

A Beautiful Joy: Reunion with the Beloved

Through Transfiguring Love

Twin Flames Romance Novels

The Weaving:

A Novel of Twin Flames Through Time

Twin Flames of ire Trilogy

The Ancients and The Call

The Water and The Flame

The Mystics and The Mystery

A BEAUTIFUL GRIEF: REFLECTIONS ON LETTING GO

2012, 2019, 2021, 2022 by Cheryl J. Eckl, LLC

Published by Flying Crane Press, Livingston, MT 59047

Excerpts from Sweet Darkness and What to Remember When Waking by David Whyte in River Flow: New & Selected Poems 1984-2007, Many Rivers Press, Langley, Washington, printed with permission from Many Rivers Press, www.davidwhyte.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, translated, electronically stored, or transmitted in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in their reviews.

The information and insights in this book are solely the opinion of the author and should not be considered as a form of therapy, advice, direction, diagnosis, and/or treatment of any kind. This information is not a substitute for medical, psychological, or other professional advice, counseling, or care. All matters pertaining to your individual health should be supervised by a physician or appropriate health-care practitioner. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or reader.

Cover and interior typography by Nita Ybarra

Cover and interior design by James Bennett

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011944725

ISBN: 978-0-9828107-2-9 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-9828107-3-6 (e-book)

Printed in the United States of America.

To those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted

CONTENTS

A Note to the Reader:
The Music of Whats Happening

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind,

In the primal sympathy

Which having been must ever be,

In the soothing thoughts that spring

Out of human suffering,

In the faith that looks through death,

In years that bring the philosophic mind.

William Wordsworth

A Note to the Reader

THE MUSIC OF
WHATS HAPPENING

IN THE FALL OF 2008 my husband, Stephen, died of colon cancer. In the summer of 2009 I went on a pilgrimage to Ireland, searching within the spiritual thin places of the Emerald Isle, where the veil between worlds seems to lift, for the lost connection of my soul to that of my beloved.

It was a very difficult, but ultimately rewarding, journeymost especially because in the quaint village of Kildare I had the good fortune to meet Sister Mary Minehan of the Brigidine Sisters.

She welcomes pilgrims of all faiths (or none) from all over the world, sharing a profound wisdom that teaches and healsand that changed my life forever.

Sister Mary was a longtime friend of the Celtic poet-philosopher John ODonohue, who had passed away in January of 2008. As my fellow travelers and I gathered in the sparely furnished condo living room that serves as welcome center, she reminisced about her friendship with this great soul, calling him uniquely attuned to the music of whats happening.

What a charming way to speak of living in the now, I thought at the time. And from that day I determined to tune my own inner ear to this cosmic symphony that might just become the soundtrack of my life if I could listen well enough.