I have recently finished “So Easy to Love, So Hard to Lose”
and wanted to share my review in hopes that it will benefit anyone who
has recently lost the love of their life.
Both my 13 and 15 year old huskies passed away within the
last 3 months. They were like my kids and the loss has been near
debilitating at times. A dear friend recommended this book and I’ll
admit I hesitated reading it at first. I was scared of the feelings it
might bring back, bargaining with myself whether I really needed it or
not; I tried to rationalize my way out of it every way imaginable. I’m
now kicking myself for not reading it sooner.
I will highlight
the elements I found particularly helpful.
The way the book was formatted, one page of content per one
page of journaling, kept me engaged. This interactive format made me
‘invest’ into my grief work than if it was all content. Of course there
were questions that I definitely avoided answering and told myself,
‘That’s enough for tonight, I'll do it later' but those turned out to
be the most helpful.
The author addresses many different loss scenarios that I
thought wouldn’t be relevant to me but reading about them opened my
eyes to how it ‘could have been’. It gave me a new perspective on my
losses and helped me see the positive elements in each scenario.
A sliding scale at the end of certain sections encouraged me
to ‘check-in’ with myself and my feelings at the present moment. It
wasn’t always on the positive side of the scale for me, but bit by bit
it gradually moved in the right direction.
I started the book feeling 100% sad 100% of the time as my
beginning ‘check-in’ suggested. The fact that I am actually able to
remember happy times with my babies and smile speaks volumes of the
progress I made with the help of the workbook. Maybe that would have
happened eventually without the book, but the content and the work
helped me get there in a positive, constructive way. It helped me think
about each factor of their lives, when all I was able to think about
was their passing. It helped me find, cherish and embrace the beauty in
everything we shared, and still share.
I am so so very fortunate that my friend recommended this
book to me. I hope you find this book as helpful as I did.
Jen Jakacki
on the
Bridge to Healing
for Boo
and Bird