02 Dec December Book of the Month – Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief
Dr. Joanne Cacciatore is a bereavement educator, researcher, Zen priest, and leading counselor in the field of grief and loss. In her award winning book, Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief, she helps readers understand their grief–how to live with it, and how to make it a productive part of who they are. She acknowledges the extreme pain that accompanies those who are grieving on a daily basis, and gently encourages them to face it, and to be gentle with themselves as they integrate it into the broader story of their lives.
Through a series of 52 short chapters, Dr. Cacciatore illuminates the ways grief can open our hearts to connection, compassion, and the very essence of our shared humanity. More than just showing readers how to navigate their own grief, it is a powerful reminder that grief comes in all shapes and sizes, and that we are not alone in living with it.
These are a few of our favorite quotes from this important work on love and loss:
“When we love deeply, we mourn deeply; extraordinary grief is an expression of extraordinary love. Grief and love mirror each other; one is not possible without the other.”
“To fully inhabit grief is to hold the contradictions of the great mystery that loss shatters us and we become whole. Grief empties us and we are filled with emotion. Fear paralyzes us and we lend courage to another. We mourn our beloved’s absence and we invoke their presence. We cease to exist as we once were and we become more fully human. We know the darkest of all nights and in so doing can bring the light of our loved ones into the world. We are the paradox. We are the bearers of the unbearable.”
“Like the gentle, unseen breeze, the presence of those loved and lost remains with us always.”
“In the brokenness, I am whole; In the darkness, I see light; In the suffering, there is hope; In the mourning, there is peace.”
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