Meet Linda Hill, Karlin Creed, Catherine Fraser and Gail Peekeekoot
Karlin, Gail, Catherine and I live in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. We are collaboratively exploring and sharing our diverse ways of continuing loving communications.
I am a researcher and experiential educator. Karlin is a medium and psychic who offers spiritual dialogue and readings. Gail is a professional celebrant who offers ceremonies to honour important turning points. Catherine is an artist and art therapist who explores spiritual cycles of birth, life, death and nature. Together we are developing a safe, inclusive, inspiring and transformative community education workshop.
More about Catherine, the creator of the art on the cover of Together Still.
Catherine is an accomplished multi-media artist, art therapist and public speaker who creatively guides everyone she encounters to cultivate and continue our loving bonds with people, pets and nature. If you have seen the cover of my book showing a bridge made of love stretching from this world to the next, then you have seen one of Catherine’s paintings. Visit Catherine’s online art gallery
Meet Julie Trainer: Founder of the Hidden Gifts of Loss Community
One of the many ways Julie Trainer is continuing her loving bonds with her Mom, is by founding the Hidden Gifts of Loss Community. Together we explore how pain can be transformed into purpose, healing and meaning.
More Books and Resources for Cultivating Loving Bonds During Our Lives
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man and Life’s Greatest Lesson. Crown, 1977
Dalai Lama [Tenzin Gyatso] and Desmond Tutu. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. Penguin Random House. 2016.
Fulghum, Robert. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things. Ballantine Books, 1986.
Ferris, Heather. Dementia and Our Love: Caregiving as a Spiritual Practice. Platypus Publishing, 2024.
Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet. Knopf, 1923.
Hanson, Rick. Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence. Harmony/Rodale, 2016.
Hanson, Rick, Shauna Shapiro et al. Masters of Mindfulness: Transforming Your Mind and Body. The Great Courses, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.thegreatcourses.com 2020.
Kessler, David, and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living. Scribner, 2005.
Kumar, Satish. Radical Love: From Separation to Connection with the Earth, Each Other, and Ourselves. Parallax Press, 2023.
Sakuma, Roy and Sakuma, Kathy. “I Am What I Am.” In PBS Hawaii Classics. PBS, 1998. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/video/roy-sakuma-bgohgv/ 2024.
Thich Nhat Hanh. Being Peace. Parallax Press,1987.
Thich Nhat Hanh. The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation. Beacon Press, 1987
Thich Nhat Hanh. The Body and Mind Are One: An Online Training Course in Mindfulness. Sounds True, 2013. Retrieved from https://one.soundstrue.com/ 2020.
More Books and Resources for Continuing Loving Bonds After Death
Berkley, Stephen. Life with Ghosts: Science Weighs in on the Healing Power of After-Death Communication. Jenny Pictures, 2024.
Dillard, Sherrie. I’m Still With You, Llewellyn Publications, 2020. (I can only recommend the first half of this book because it is based on Sherrie’s life experiences. I cannot recommend the second half of the book because Sherrie goes way beyond observations and perceptions to unfounded interpretations, speculation, theology and opinions).
Guggenheim, Bill and Judy Guggenheim. Hello From Heaven!: A New Field of Research—After-Death Communication—Confirms that Life and Love are Eternal. Bantam Books, 1996. (I found most aspects of this book to be objective factual data from their interviews. However, I was taken aback by their critical judgements and opinions about the consequences of suicide.)
Haley, Eleanor. “A Grief Concept You Should Care About: Continuing Bonds.” What’s Your Grief, 2021. Retrieved from https://whatsyourgrief.com/grief-concept-care-continuing-bonds/ 2022.
Jackson, Laura Lynne . Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe. Random House. 2019.
Klass, Dennis, Phyllis R. Silverman and Steven L. Nickman. Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief. Routledge, 1996.
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families. Scribner, 1969.
Lee, Marisa Renee. Grief is Love: Living with loss. Hachette Books, 2022.
Moody, Raymond. Life After Life: The Bestselling Investigation That Revealed “Near Death Experiences.” Harper One, 1975.
O’Connor, Mary-Frances. The grieving brain: The surprising science of how we learn from love and loss. Harper One. 2022.
Peters, William with Michael Kinsella. At Heaven’s Door: What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better. Simon and Schuster, 2022.
Seigal, Catherine. Bereaved Parents and Their Continuing Bonds: Love After Death. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.
Thich Nhat Hanh. No Death No Fear. Riverhead Books, 2002
Zuba, Tom. Permission to Mourn: A New Way to do Grief. Bish Press, 2014.
Zuba, Tom. Becoming Radiant: A New Way to Do Life Following the “Death” of a Beloved. Book 2. Bish Press, 2018.
Memoirs
Alexander, Elizabeth. The Light of the World. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.
Carlson, Kristine. Heartbroken Open: A True Story of Coming Alive Again After Profound Loss. HarperStudio, 2010.
Kalanithi, Paul. When Breath Becomes Air. Random House, 2016.
Niderost, Heather. The Light World. Nine Pines Publishing, 1996.
Wolfe, Ellyn. Grateful for the Color Blue: Surviving the loss of an adult child. Cape Ann Publishing, 2020.
Resources for Cultivating and Continuing Loving Bonds With Nature
Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. New York: Pantheon Books, 1996.
Cohen, Michael. Reconnecting with Nature: Finding Wellness Through Restoring Your Bond with the Earth. Finney Company, 1997
Cornell, Joseph. Sharing Nature with Children: A Parents’ and Teachers’ Nature-awareness Guidebook. Ananda Publications, 1979
Haupt, Lyanda Lynn. Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit. Little, Brown, Spark. 2021.
Hawken, Paul. Regeneration : ending the climate crisis in one generation. Penguin Books, 2021.
Macy, Joanna and Brown, Molly. Coming Back to Life: The Guide to the Work that Reconnects. New Society Publishers, 2014
Websites, Groups and Organizations
Life With Ghosts Documentary and Website: https://www.livingwithghostsmovie.com
About a third of bereaved people in the world (and more in the USA) are debilitated by Prolonged Grief Disorder. Stephen Berkley’s film, website, presentations and conferences show that survivors who continue their loving bonds with their loved ones are able to resolve their grief. However, many psychologists, grief counselors, and clergy routinely discourage talking with loved ones who have died as “denial” or even “heresy.” By making this film widely available, Stephen and his colleagues hope to spread the news that talking with our loved ones is tested and proven effective for the treatment of grief.
The Shared Crossing Project: https://www.sharedcrossing.com
Founded by William Peters in 2011, the Shared Crossing Project is a local organization with a global vision – to help create a world where death is honored and where the mysteries surrounding life, death, and possibilities of an afterlife can be openly discussed and explored.
What’s Your Grief? https://whatsyourgrief.com/
To put it simply, this website is about grief. That probably sounds oversimplified, but grief is a complex topic. Grief is an emotional, logistical, and existential nightmare. It requires us to navigate life without someone important, deal with overwhelming thoughts and feelings, and find ways to function in a world turned on its head.
Laura Lynne Jackson https://lauralynnejackson.com/
Laura Lynne Jackson’s website and books teach ordinary people like you and me to continue our loving bonds with people who have died by paying attention to what she refers to as a secret language of the universe. We all have the potential to send and receive these signs with the help of spiritual energy, memories, dreams, imagination and experiences in nature.
Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times https://missionjoy.org/
Mission: Joy is a website and a film that shares the humor and wisdom of two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Their goal is to show the world how to live with JOY, even in troubled times.
Suzanne Giesemann https://suzannegiesemann.com/
After the death of her beloved step-daughter, Suzanne’s mission changed from serving her country to serving those who are dealing with the challenges of being human. Many of us have been physically, mentally and emotionally broken and wounded. But Suzanne’s greatest honor is to help all of us discover we are a soul, and our soul is perfectly fine.
CONTINUING LOVING BONDS 