Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Courtney Weber, author of the new Sacred Tears. After my first miscarriage, I blogged about the loss as a way of being "real" with people in our community, while also trying to de-stigmatize a sad, but natural process. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. A few days later, I received an email with an unsolicited Tarot reading about my loss from someone I barely knew. First of all, I hadn't wanted a Tarot reading on it. Second, I'm an avid Tarot reader, I know nasty cards when I see them. Although the sender tried to put a positive spin on the reading, their well-intentioned action added a thick layer of gloom to my already painful

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Amanda MacKenzie, author of the new From Grief to Healing. When our three children were young, we would often drive past an old green school bus that had a bold FOR SALE sign across the windscreen. Many times, I'd convince my patient husband to stop so I could admire it and talk to them all about how great it would be to buy that bus: to home-school and travel around Australia for a year or more. The idea may have been seeded by many happy holidays of mine in a caravan with mum and dad and my four siblings—long, hot summers, beautiful beaches, and carefree fun. That old school bus looked like it had seen better days, and even though I

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Keith Park, Ph.D., author of The Serenity Solution. Life can sometimes throw curve balls. Challenges such as accidents, illness, or loss may occur for little or no reason. How we approach these events determines in large part how we will successfully cope with them. Prayer is one way we may address our concerns. Through quiet reflection, we may bring our troubles to God—a larger Divine intelligence or Source—and unburden ourselves. The most common form of prayer is the petition or intention prayer. Through this type of prayer, we typically seek a specific outcome, usually the resolution of a difficulty (e.g. "Heal me God").

Yesterday I wrote a summary on the books in the self help, healing, and spiritual development categories that came out in 2012. There were three in particular that I wanted to touch on a bit more as we head deeper into this holiday season: Our Children Live On by Elissa Al-Chokhach,  Forever With You by Patrick Mathews, and By Morning's Light by Ginny Brock. These titles focus on bereavement and afterlife. Why these titles? Why now? I've heard year after year how the holidays are often the most difficult time for those who've lost loved ones. With the death of my sister earlier this year I'm learning first hand how very true this is. While the daily pangs eventually subside and "it