The Losses of Our Lives: The Sacred Gifts of Renewal in Everyday Loss [Paperback]

Find hope and renewal in life's natural cycle of ordinary losses and new beginnings.

When we intentionally enter into our everyday walk through small losses, the terrain of larger losses, the valley of the shadow of death, is not totally unknown. It is not completely unfamiliar, alien, terrifying, for we have walked some of this way before with our lesser losses. We can journey through this valley of loss, for journey through it we must. And we can emerge markedly changed, but alive, on the other side.
from the Prologue

Going beyond loss as a problem to be resolved, a grief to be worked through, Dr. Nancy Copeland-Payton, a spiritual director and ordained clergywoman, reframes loss from the perspective that our everyday losses help us learn what we need to handle the major losses. Weaving in spiritual and classical themes, personal and scriptural story, Dr. Copeland-Payton shows us that by becoming aware of what our lesser losses have to teach us, the larger losses of our lives become less terrifying. Each chapter includes a spiritual practice and questions for reflection to help you:

• Mine the hidden depths of painful losses of things and places
• Traverse the devastating loss of relationships and the heart-wrenching death of people we love.
• Overcome the steep, dark slopes of loss of beliefs and faith.
• Venture past our fear of the losses of aging and our own death.

Acknowledgments
Prologue

1 The Human Tapestry
Spiritual Practice: Breath Prayer
Exploring Deeper

2 Birth Pangs and Passages
Spiritual Practice: Walking Meditation
Exploring Deeper

3 Awakening: Patterns of Gift and Loss
Spiritual Practice: Examen
Exploring Deeper

4 Things and Places
Spiritual Practice: Sand Mandala
Exploring Deeper

5 The Ebb al3v