A poignant story of loss and how a young mother picked herself up and found the courage to move forward in the search for answers about death, loss, and grief while foraging a new path in her desire to find joy again. Wendy's life was forever changed when her husband passed away from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in 2009. She had already experienced a traumatic loss when her mother had passed away a year earlier, and now she was left with a one-year-old son and a new path that she had to forge alone. This is a story about the loss of her spouse and her journey to finding her way out of the challenges of loss, grief, and sadness and back into joy. It is her story of hope, how she moved forward one step at a time and how her quest to understand life after death helped her heal and move forward.

You may have recently suffered the loss of a loved one, a job, a home, or a business. Or perhaps you're rebuilding after a painful divorce. Major losses like these can sap the joy out of life, trapping you in pain. Authors Duane and Cindy Mullett have experienced tragic loss and understand the meaning of suffering. Together with Dr. David Ferguson, they detail a tried-and-true journey from grief to recovery...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! AS HEARD ON NPR MORNING EDITION AND ON BEING WITH KRISTA TIPPETT “Katherine May opens up exactly what I and so many need to hear but haven't known how to name.” —Krista Tippett, On Being “Every bit as beautiful and healing as the season itself. . . . This is truly a beautiful book.” —Elizabeth Gilbert "Proves that there is grace in letting go, stepping back and giving yourself time to repair in the dark...May is a clear-eyed observer and her language is steady, honest and accurate—capturing the sense, the beauty and the latent power of our resting landscapes." —Wall Street Journal An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas. Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.

In A Short Course in Happiness After Loss, acclaimed positive psychologist Maria Sirois traverses the territories we most fear-death, exile, disease-and offers us a poetic, compassionate template for rising through pain towards a resilient happiness that acknowledges the scars of our suffering while also rejoicing in the goodness of our world.

In this remarkable book, John Welshons weaves together his own personal awakening with those of others he’s counseled to create a deeply felt and beautifully expressed primer on dealing with grief. Grieving, says Welshons, offers a unique opportunity to develop deeper and fuller life experiences, to embrace pain in order to open the heart to joy. Written for those who have experienced any kind of loss — death, divorce, or disappointment — this book offers reasonable, reassuring thinking on dealing with the death of loved ones and ourselves, finding the inner gifts that promote healing, and much more. Awakening from Grief takes a rare and compelling positive look at a subject needlessly viewed as one of the most negative in life. This is a persuasive primer on drawing the joy out of grief.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From authors of Lean In and Originals: a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in ‘the void,’” she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.” Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build. Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy. Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,” she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,” and then promised to help her make the most of Option B. We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.