Kristi Smith is a recent widow after almost 25 years of marriage. Her beloved husband, Mike, died on October 4, 2011, from cardiac arrest when his heart suddenly stopped in their driveway at home. Kristi, their daughters, and one of Mike’s friends were all with Mike when he passed. After one year of grieving, Kristi started to write this book. She took a year off from her decorating business and devoted herself to writing down the valuable lessons she had learned about grieving. She has sorted through these “learnings”, as she calls them, and compiled the most profound lessons in her book DREAM:a guide to grieving gracefully.
Kristi has 30 years of experience in ministry and a BS in Psychology, so she comes from a solid place of experience and knowledge of how the mind, body, and spirit work together. Kristi has met so many people who are stuck in grief and unable to heal from the death of a loved one. This breaks her heart to see them locked in the pain of grief. This book is vital to understanding how to grieve and how to do it gracefully. Kristi interjects humor and real life stories to illustrate her points. She is not shy about sharing some poignant words that she knows will help grievers process the pain.
Why did I write this book?
I wrote this book, because I have met too many people who are caught in the grip of grief and are unable to heal. They are either trapped in perpetual grieving or they avoid grieving altogether because they think it will only hurt them more. Grieving should lead to healing. When it doesn’t, it is because we don’t know “how” to grieve. This book is my attempt to share 5 keys that can unlock the grip of grief. I wrote this book to answer a few questions…How do we unlock the grip of grief and move through the stages of grief into healing? How do we let go of the anger and sadness that hold our hearts captive in grief? How do we ease out of denial and into the reality of our loss without being overwhelmed? It seemed for awhile that I had more questions than answers, but as a sorted through the grief, I realized that this mystery was becoming clearer and healing was happening. I share these insights, because they are too important to keep to myself.
Who do I want to read my book?
This book is for grievers and/or their support people. This book is for every one of us. Death is the one thing we humans have in common. We will all have to come to terms with living without someone we love at some time in our lives.
First of all, this book is for grievers, men and women who are trying to go on living after the death of someone they love. Grief is a messy and tricky process and not much has been written on “how to grieve”. Grief rocks our world and we need help learning to live again. I have tried to make this book easy to read and understand. Each chapter is divided into small “bites” that will be easier for the griever to chew on as they are able.
This book is also for the friends and family members of the grievers. Support people want to understand what grievers need and “how to support” them. Vital information on what to say and do to help the griever is inside this book.
DREAM is an acronym for 5 keys to unlock the grip of grief. Each of the 5 stages of grief has a corresponding key to unlock that stage of grief. We all want to learn how to grieve and we hope to grieve gracefully.
