Grieving the Write Way: The Series
Your world has changed. Someone special is missing.
How do you do this?
What does this loss mean for you?
Who are you now?
What’s next?
MY PERSONAL HISTORY WITH WRITING AND GRIEF
I experienced multiple, traumatic losses in early childhood. By the time I was a teenager, I was slogging through each day carrying massive weights that I was unaware of.
Then I lost my dad. He dropped in front of me of a heart attack. He was a single dad and my one functional parent.
My grief burden was already massive. When this lightning bolt struck, I thought my life was over.
I was stunned.
One day I picked up a pencil and started writing. The next day, I wrote some more.
I found myself emoting as I wrote. I cried. I paced and talked to myself. I yelled and screamed.
Writing opened an avenue for my heart to express its anguish. Sadness, confusion, anger, fear, anxiety, and guilt spewed out of me, one word at a time. I felt lousy, but expressing myself felt good and relieving.
Keeping a journal became a habit. Writing about what was happening in my heart and mind became a part of my daily routine. I continue this today. Frankly, I don’t know what I would do without writing as a way of processing life.
WRITING AND THE GRIEF PROCESS
Writing can play a massive part in the grief and healing process.
Writing steadies our hearts enough to express our emotions in a healthy and productive way.
Writing slows our spinning minds down enough to get our thoughts on paper and begin to process them.
Writing can enable us to consider the physical impact of on our bodies and help us decide what to do about it.
Writing gives us a safe place to express and process spiritual questions, doubts, and fears.
Writing allows us to share our frustrations about our relationships in an honest and uncensored manner.
Writing enables us to consider and work through our thoughts, wonderings, and fears about the future.
Writing can become a powerful habit that can help us navigate life in general. What we don’t express stays locked in our hearts and often becomes some of the baggage that weighs us down.
Writing can be a tool which unveils hope. Hope is always here, but sometimes pain can blind us to it.
HOW GRIEVING THE WRITE WAY CAN HELP
This book is about you and the terrible loss you’re enduring.
This book is about helping you express your heart, mind, and soul.
This book can assist you in navigating all the relational changes and upsets you’re facing.
This book can help you see that you’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and that you will make it through this.
This book can help you take the next steps in your grief process, whatever they might be.
WELCOME TO
GRIEVING THE WRITE WAY
So, welcome to the Grieving the Write Way Journal and Workbook. In these pages, you’ll get many opportunities to experience the benefits of writing about your loss and what’s happening in your heart and mind.
Now.
In addition to Grieving the Write Way, Gary Roe is the author of the award-winning bestsellers Shattered: Surviving the Loss of a Child, Please Be Patient, I’m Grieving, Heartbroken: Healing from the Loss of a Spouse and Surviving the Holidays Without You. He is also the co-author (with New York Times Bestseller Cecil Murphey) of Not Quite Healed and Saying Goodbye. Gary has more than 800 articles in print and has been featured on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Dr. Laura, Thrive Global, Wellness, Bustle, and other major media. He currently serves as an author, speaker, grief specialist, and grief coach. Gary loves being a husband and father. He has seven adopted children. He enjoys swimming, hockey, corny jokes, and cool Hawaiian shirts. Gary and his wife Jen and family live in Texas.
What Others are Saying about Grieving the Write Way
Healing from a loss is the hardest work one will ever have to do. To do it well, we need help to walk head on into the grief each day. That’s where Gary’s book Grieving the Write Way comes in. This is such a tremendous tool for the challenge of moving forward by journaling and getting honest with your emotions and memories as you process and progress on your journey toward healing. Thank you, Gary Roe!
I have always loved journaling and writing. That’s why Grieving the Write Way is the perfect fit for me. I love the journaling prompts and the many creative ways included in the book, like poetry, letters, and stories designed to help in processing my emotions and sorting out my thoughts. When I feel alone and grief overwhelms me, this workbook is the perfect companion to steady my walk and help me express my mind, heart, and soul.
Once again, Gary Roe has been able to reach into those difficult places in the journey of grief and offer real-life help and encouragement. With genuine compassion and wisdom drawn from his own journeys through grief, he prompts us to look at the emotions of grief and process them with healthy, honest, and productive suggestions. Written in short topical chapters, this is a tool that you must have as you navigate the hard season of grief.
I read Grieving the Write Way 20 months after the loss of my wife of 50 years. Grief is a lonely and traumatic experience that rears its ugly head without warning at the most unexpected times. This book, with stories and quotes from other grief-stricken individuals, tells you that you are not alone on this journey, and gives you hope that somehow you will survive this ordeal, and that there will be a future. In his caring, thoughtful, and affable way, Gary draws you in to the writing exercises in the journal portions of the book. Writing about my grief is something I had never considered, but it is so helpful and thought provoking to actually get your feelings down on paper. I know this book will be a constant companion and resource for me as I, over time, reengage in the writing exercises and measure my progress.
—Dennis Baer, bereaved spouse and survivor of multiple close losses
Grieving the Write Way was mesmerizing to me. I found myself absorbed in the readings, exercises, and activities. This workbook is an invaluable tool in guiding the grieving heart to finding the pathway to comfort and healing.
After losing my only child 33 months ago, I learned so much from Grieving the Write Way. This book is a definite must-have for any person that is grieving the death of a loved one. Thank you for your commitment to help all the grieving hearts out there.
Grieving the Write Way helps to think and write about the many different feelings that the grieving person experiences. The format supports navigating the grief journey by assisting in processing those difficult emotions to help heal after loss.
