Dealing with Grief and Loss

by Diane

Seasons of Solace by Janelle Hertzler is a book that demonstrates how growth happens in the midst of dealing with grief and loss.

It was a Sunday just like any other in July 2005 when Janelle Shantz Hertzler got the call that changed her life: her husband was dead. At the time, they were living in Thailand with their 18-month-old son doing volunteer work. On that fateful day, Hertzler's husband, John, took his motorcycle to church and was struck head on by a drunk driver. He died instantly.

In her new book, Seasons of Solace: A Story of Healing through Photos and Poems, Hertzler shares the poetry and photography that helped heal her pain after John's death. The poems, coupled with photos of nature, reveal glimpses into the spectrum of raw emotions Hertzler experienced on her journey dealing with grief and loss.

"When I felt as though my grief was consuming me, I sought relief through writing and photography," Hertzler says. "As I explored my creativity and truly experienced the serenity of nature, emotion that seemed frozen within me began to thaw."

While she wrote the poems and captured the photos that grace the pages of Seasons of Solace, Hertzler also worked through her grief and loss by taking classes in trauma healing, attending spiritual transformation retreats and participating in spiritual direction. The combination of these methods led her to discover that spending time with nature and writing about her emotions could provide her with a path toward healing. Hertzler hopes that the honesty in her poems will help other people overcome loss, whatever that loss may be.

"When I shared my work with others, they told me how hearing my story helped them identify grief in their own lives," Hertzler says. "For some it was illness or disability and for others it was a loss of dreams, but somehow they too experienced healing and growth."

This touching book on dealing with grief and loss is available through all major book stores. You can read more about Hertzler's story on her website www.journey-through-grief.com



Personal Development Home