Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One and Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Bertram is also the author of the suspense novels Unfinished, Madame ZeeZee’s Nightmare, Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.
Today’s tarot card pick was the sun, or as this particular deck calls it, “The Beaming Light.” That’s the only sun I get today since the real beaming light is hidden behind clouds, a rarity in these parts. Still, the sun card is sufficient since it speaks of glory, gain, riches, success, creativity, and happiness.
I like the coincidence of the sun being the nineteenth card of the major arcana and this is the nineteenth day of the month. I’m not reading anything into that coincidence because I don’t think such a fluke has happened before, so there doesn’t seem to be any meaning to such a concurrence — it’s simply time for the numbers to coincide.
There is another interesting coincidence, however, that I would like to read something into (assuming there is any truth to the tarot). I did an online reading at a tarot site today, and the final card (the likely outcome) was the sun, too.
Which means to me that the significance of the sun is doubly correct! The sun certainly is bringing brightness to my day. Although tomorrow is the official publication day, my newest book, Bob, The Right Hand of God is available for sale on Amazon right now, a day early.
Such a pleasant surprise!
You can buy the print book today and have it delivered to you in about a week. Click here to order: Bob, The Right Hand of God. Or you can buy the Kindle version today and it will appear on your Kindle tomorrow. Click here to purchase: Kindle version of Bob, The Right Hand of God.
So yes! This is definitely a day of beaming light and happiness and all the good things I could wish for myself. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the “sun” comes true too — the glory, gain, and riches that will come from people discovering, reading, loving Bob, The Right Hand of God.
I’ve been feeling lazy lately. I’ve done what was absolutely necessary, such as water my plants and go to work, but other than that, I haven’t felt like doing anything except low energy activities like reading and playing on my computer. I haven’t even been doing much walking.
Worried that I was getting sick, I went to bed a little earlier last night, hoping it would help. And what a shock! I fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up until 10:00 am. It is rare for me to sleep that long or that late, so rare that I can’t even remember when it was. Years ago, that’s for sure.
Anyway, I staggered out of bed, and that was the last staggering I’ve done for the past four hours. I woke up with so much energy that I’ve been charging around the house, turning the mattress, changing the sheets, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, dusting all surfaces, dry mopping and wet mopping the floors.
Wow! Where did all that energy come from? Apparently, whatever has been making me lethargic — exhaustion, barometric pressure changes, allergies, low grade infection, sadness over the state of the world or who knows what — has passed for now.
One thing I did not do yet was take a walk, but after my laundry dries, after I’ve folded it and put it away, and after I’ve relaxed with a cup of tea, I might go out for a bit. Unless my energy level crashes.
But for now, all is fine.
It’s too bad all life’s problems can’t be solved as easily — send everyone to bed to sleep off all the agitation and aggravation, the antagonism and acrimony that seems to be holding us all hostage.
Nothing is that easy, of course. It just feels as if it should be because everything feels easy for me today.
***
We’re getting closer to the October 20th publication date every day!
If you are planning to get a Kindle version of my new novel, Bob, The Right Hand of God, you can now pre-order on Amazon, and the minute the book is published, the book will appear in your Kindle. Click here to purchase: Kindle version of Bob, The Right Hand of God.
If you wish to buy a paperback copy, click here: Bob, The Right Hand of God, sign up for email notifications, and Amazon will let you know the minute it is for sale.
I truly hope this book will amuse you, entertain you, make you think and perhaps even dream a bit about what it would be like if God decided to recreate the world.
There is no citation, before 1936, for the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” It was one of the Chamberlains — Austen — who apparently first used the quote, and all he said was that an unnamed member of the foreign service had told him about it. People who have looked for the origin of the sentiment say the Chinese have never heard the curse, or at least the ones who were queried hadn’t heard of it.
Whatever the origin, it certainly does seem to be a curse to live in interesting times, as those of us who have so far lived through the “interesting” year of 2020 can attest.
John Zimirak wrote: “What if in October 2019, I’d told you that a Chinese virus would cripple our economy, close our churches, and strip us of the right of free assembly — except for violent, destructive, anti-police riots? That it would give Democrat governors virtual dictatorial powers, which they’d ruthlessly exploit, weaponizing public panic? Making a mockery of public health by dumping virus patients in nursing homes, while locking down churches? And that the Democrats would nominate one of the weakest candidates in their field, but exploit the effects of the Chinese virus to pull ahead in the presidential race? You’d have waved me off as a crackpot. But that’s exactly what has happened.”
Not everyone will agree with his analysis and his conclusions, but everyone will agree with some of it because here we are. Living in an interesting time.
Even more than living in an “interesting” time, we are living in an historical time. This year has been pivotal, and whatever happens after the election, no matter who wins, will also be pivotal to the USA. Some of the items on the platforms for the next four years may end up as permanent fixtures, unable to be undone. Even if people ever realize the truth of how we have changed, perhaps not for the better, there might not be any going back (or forward) to a more centrist position.
Trump has been called the unobama, since he and his supporters are trying to roll back some of the policies they found unacceptable to the security of our nation. But what happens in the future when there is no more undoing of policies, policies that will punish either the silent conservative or the vocal liberal? It seems probable that one of those groups will be punished with policies they cannot live with because of how polarized we now are. What frightens me and so many other thinkers and overthinkers is that there seems to be no way to work our way back to a center where most people may be at least a bit satisfied with the future of our country. And satisfied with the present, of course, since it’s the present that will determine the future.
Interesting times, for sure.
This is also a time more than any other where the truth is hard to find. It used to be I could read a plethora of articles on all sides of an issue, and wherever they intersected, there the truth could be found. It’s not that easy any more. It’s still a matter of reading a plethora of articles, but now it’s also necessary to try to trace the premises of the articles back to the origin. And that takes work.
I used to think truth was all important. Actually, I still think that. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I thought everyone accepted the importance of truth. Of facts.
But then opinion became more powerful that fact. Not everyone can or will do the work to find the truth because it takes work to find the facts. But everyone can have an opinion regardless of the facts.
Now, reaction seems to be more powerful than opinion. Someone says or does something and long before the facts are known, even before the opinions start being bandied about, people react.
I’m not sure there is a resolution to this situation. After watching Judge Judy with the woman I take care of a few hours a week, and after seeing all the irrational people coming before the judge, I’m convinced there never will be an answer.
I hope I’m wrong. But either way . . . interesting times.
***
We’re getting closer to the October 20th publication date every day!
If you are planning to get a Kindle version of my new novel, Bob, The Right Hand of God, you can now pre-order on Amazon, and the minute the book is published, the book will appear in your Kindle. Click here to purchase: Kindle version of Bob, The Right Hand of God.
If you wish to buy a paperback copy, click here: Bob, The Right Hand of God, sign up for email notifications, and Amazon will let you know the minute it is for sale.
I truly hope this book will amuse you, entertain you, make you think and perhaps even dream a bit about what it would be like if God decided to recreate the world. Now those would be interesting times!
I’ve got a crick in my neck from watching huge flocks of birds flying overhead while I was out walking this morning. They weren’t geese — they didn’t have the same tight formation that geese use — but they seemed similar, at least from my viewpoint, standing on the ground far beneath the flocks, craning my neck to watch them for as long as they were in sight. The sounds they made were also different from those of a goose, more of a warble than a honk. I’ve spent the past hour or so trying to figure out what the birds are, and I think they are sandhill cranes. The sound is right, the time of year is right, and according to at least one map, the migratory path is right.
If I had my binoculars with me, I would have been able to see them more clearly. And, of course, if I had followed through on my plan to get a birding camera when I got here, I could have taken a photo instead of relying on this free image.
The last time I experienced such a vast migration was the turkey vulture migration I saw when I lived in California. Those might be unattractive birds when seen close up, but in flight, they are every bit as beautiful as the birds — the cranes — I saw today.
And those cranes certainly were beautiful and elegant.
I was especially delighted to see the cranes today — not just because they were a treat for my eyes and ears (though not for my neck), but also because of the reminder that despite all the sham, broken dreams, and the political machinations we are currently being subjected to, it’s still a beautiful world.
p.s. In case you’re wondering, my use of the word “craning” was no accident.
***
We’re getting closer to the October 20th publication date every day!
If you are planning to get a Kindle version of my new novel, Bob, The Right Hand of God, you can now pre-order on Amazon, and the minute the book is published, the book will appear in your Kindle. Click here to purchase: Kindle version of Bob, The Right Hand of God.
If you wish to buy a paperback copy, click here: Bob, The Right Hand of God, sign up for email notifications, and Amazon will let you know the minute it is for sale.
I truly hope this book will amuse you, entertain you, make you think and perhaps even dream a bit about what it would be like if God decided to recreate the world.
Despite one odd reminder of The Bob, my life seems as if it’s back to normal, or as normal as it gets since Jeff died. Now that the library is open again, I’ve been going at least once a week to say hi and check out an armload of books. I’ve made a couple of forays to the historical museum, once to be briefed on a project I’m going to do for them (listening to living history recordings and then turning them into short presentations for various exhibits) and once for an Art Guild meeting. The meeting was fun — it’s been months since I was able to attend a meeting. At first, they stopped the meetings because we couldn’t plan and prepare for any guild projects, then when the meetings began again, I was working.
Everyone was there when I arrived, and when they excitedly said hello, I brandished my very elegant hat and swept a flourishing bow. Someone mentioned that it seemed as if I were a star. Of course, I agreed.
I’ve also met a new resident (an artist/musician from Austin), heard about an artist from New York who moved here to open a studio, and learned that as of now, there are no houses for sale.
Big, big changes for such a tiny town! Apparently, I slipped into the door of affordable houses before it could slam shut behind me, Or, it could be that the door had been closing all along, and it waited for me to come before it latched itself.
Next week, with any luck, my contractor will come and continue working on my various projects. He’d planned to come on Tuesday, but the gas company had the alley closed off and dug up to install new lines.
Despite all this seeming activity, I mostly spend time by myself, read, skim articles on the internet, play games on my computer, walk when the weather and I agree on suitability. And do my daily tarot card study.
Today’s card, the same one I got a couple of weeks ago, warned me about the folly of worrying about things I cannot change, and to salvage what peace I can from the chaos around me. Good advice and so needed. Although I normal don’t pay a lot of attention to politics, I’ve been worrying about the changes this next election will bring no matter who is elected, and yet, from the most recent spates of free speech suppression, I realize the changes are already here, incubating in the schools and the unformed minds of the young. If the legacy press as well as sites such as Twitter and Facebook can suppress the truth about one candidate’s son’s graft and the lies that were told about the candidate selling us out to China, if kids can be expelled from school for sharing conservative points of view (non-incendiary points of view, I might add), if dictionaries can change their definitions overnight to turn a common phrase into one that is verboten, then we’re lost. And if we’re lost, then there’s nothing I can do about it except make sure I remain found.
What’s that Rudyard Kipling poem? Something about keeping my head when all about me are losing theirs and being lied [to] but not deal in lies . . . Well, then, there would be one person in the world who is not a problem.
So, normalcy. My sort of normalcy.
As for the odd reminder of The Bob — I am working for a woman who has a nurse who works for a woman who belongs to an agency where an employee tested positive for The Bob. Not close at all, really, but too close for complacency.
Hmm. I might have to stop calling the Chinese virus “The Bob.” I wouldn’t want people to think my new book Bob, The Right Hand of God has anything to do with The Bob flu.
And yay! We’re getting closer to the October 20th publication date every day.
If you are planning to get a Kindle version of my new novel, Bob, The Right Hand of God you can now pre-order on Amazon, and the minute the book is published, the book will appear in your Kindle. Click here to purchase: Kindle version of Bob, The Right Hand of God.
If you wish to buy a paperback copy, click here: Bob, The Right Hand of God, sign up for email notifications, and Amazon will let you know the minute it is for sale.
I truly hope this book will amuse you, entertain you, make you think and perhaps even dream a bit about what it would be like if God decided to recreate the world. I especially hope the book sells big. Admittedly, that would catapult me out of my recent return to normalcy, but that’s the sort of change I could go for.
It was too windy for me to go for a walk today, so I worked around the house — dusting, dry mopping, wet mopping, and various other chores. What struck me as I was pampering my house is how many people contributed in one way or another to my being here, through small inheritances and other legacies, furniture donations, help in fixing up the place, in oh, so many ways. I don’t like thinking that people had to die for me to be here, but the love they left behind is something I do like to think of. At times, it feels as if the house wraps me in comfort and safety, which I particularly needed to be reminded of today.
Elections don’t normally affect me one way or another, but this one has me scared for what it portends for our country. I’m particularly aware of the revolution going on that will upend the core beliefs of many of us and make the world a lot less safe. With potential new taxes, with new mores, with the lack of any desire on the part of some leaders to stop the looting in various cities (in fact, some nominees actually approve of looting and want to keep it going), there will be no way to keep what we have from the grasp of the various powers if they want to take it. (Not that this is anything new. It’s just that I never had anything before to be taken so it never seemed personal.)
Although I knew this revolution was going on, and has been going on for many decades in one form or another, I never thought to see it gaining ground so rapidly. I figured I’d be gone by the time this country became unrecognizable. Luckily, I live in the back of beyond where people still believe in accountability, responsibility, family, equality, freedom, law and order, less rather than more government, and all the other strengths of a stable society, so maybe I won’t feel the effects as much as I fear.
But whether those big changes come soon or are still several years away, for today, I am surrounded by all the love invested in this house. And that’s a great place to be. And a wonderful thing to be reminded of.
And speaking of being reminded, let’s not forget that in nine days, my latest novel, Bob, The Right Hand of God will be published! If you would like to be notified by email when the book is available, click here: Bob, The Right Hand of God, sign up for email notifications, and Amazon will let you know the minute it is for sale.
My new novel will be published on October 20, 2020. If you’d like to be notified by email when it’s available, click here: Bob, The Right Hand of God, sign up for email notifications, and Amazon will let you know the minute it is available.
All Chet Thomlin wants is to be left alone to care for the abandoned and neglected animals at his store, Used Pets, but his obnoxious customers and clinging mother make life miserable. And nothing ever seems to change.
On April Fool’s day, a gnome-like little man appears on television. He introduces himself as Bob, the Right Hand of God, and says that as part of the galactic renewal program, God has accepted an offer from a development company on the planet Xerxes to turn Earth into a theme park.
Chet laughs at the prank, but then bizarre things happen. Carrier pigeons return, millions of them, darkening the sky as they hadn’t done for over a hundred years. His mother and her entire subdivision are wiped off the face of the earth. And his friends disappear.
On Easter Sunday, a bright light appears, and Bob tells the remaining population of Denver that if they enter the light, they will be safe from the reconstruction zone. Chet watches people enter one by one, but he refuses to step forward, thinking that he’d rather have his freedom than to be in a dubiously safe place.
The light fades, and Chet gets what he wanted. He is left alone. Well, except for Bob. Bob won’t let him be. Bob calls Chet on his now defunct cellphone, taunts him, plays with his senses. Being chosen by The Right Hand of God is no fun!
Even worse, Chet gets more change than he can handle. Plumbing and all other signs of civilization vanish. Denver becomes a prairie of blue flowers that sweep into an inland sea where a prehistoric monster lives. Volcanoes grow at his feet.
And Chet has become prey.
Maybe going into that mysterious light wouldn’t be so bad after all . . .
***
Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator
When I was young, I thought the world would be a different place when women began to run things. Oh, my — what was I thinking?
Looking back, I suppose I was thinking that the women who would achieve leadership would bring feminine attributes to the position, a mother earth (or earth mother) who sees all, gently ushers us to peace and prosperity, shows us the way to kindness and caring, displays wisdom and understanding and especially creativity — an outflowing of life-giving forces that take us where we need to be.
Instead, what we have are a whole slew of Lucrezia Borgias and Lizzie Bordens. Women who will do anything to achieve their ends (their ends, not our ends), to do what is best for them (best for them, not best for us). Women who, it seems, will bludgeon us with their power and if that doesn’t work, they’ll bring out the axes. (I’m probably maligning Lucrezia and Lizzie for the sake of parallelism, but they were the first names that come to mind for examples of women who are seen as more vicious than men.)
I know the consensus is that women have to be more ruthless than men (unless you were a supreme court judge, then you needed to be simply ruth), stronger and more aggressive to get ahead, but if this is the case, then what do we need women in power for? We already have men playing those games. Instead of the balance of yin and yang, we now have yang and yanger. This doesn’t bode well for a well-rounded world, which, in fact, isn’t round but is an oblate spheroid or oblate ellipsoid, but you get my point.
Their point, the point of those in power, that is, has nothing to do with a well-rounded society at peace with itself and the world. It has everything to do with . . .
I had to stop here and think. What is the point of those in power? What are they trying to gain? More power for themselves, of course, as well as a ton of money, but other than that, I haven’t a clue. All I know is that both men and women are struggling for a power that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with making us or our lives better.
It’s disappointing to me (the me that was once young and idealistic) that women are settling for so little. I thought we were better than that.
Apparently not.
***
Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator
I’ve temporarily found a way around Facebook’s total block of my blog. I share the blog to another blog I have, and then post the link to that blog. So far, so good. It’s possible FB’s algorithms will notice that the blog is not posting anything original and ban that one, too, but then I’ll do the same thing with another blog. I have plenty, most of which are moribund.
Back when I learned to blog, I discovered that I could change the color of this blog theme, so I started all sorts of blogs in order to have a whole rainbow of them. There was also one I started much later because I liked the notebook format. Then, as did all the rest, it fell by the wayside.
I did use all those blogs for a while, though I can’t remember why I started Wayword Wind — well, I needed a green blog to finish off my blog rainbow, but there must have been some other reason for the blog. With the way I purposely misspelled wayword, I must have planned on using it as some sort of writing blog, maybe even a place to post 100 word stories that I called Mini Fiction. For a while, I posted photographic essays, but since I don’t save this blog just for articles about reading and writing any more, I now post photos here.
The purple blog was a compilation of articles about book promotion, which I haven’t looked at for a while. I tend to think most of those articles are now outdated, but I leave them up anyway. What else can I use a blog for that’s called Book Marketing Floozy?
Then there was the orange blog I originally started to talk about all the things I did to procrastinate, which I called Dragon My Feet. (As you can see, I thought I was clever back in those days.) When I procrastinated too much to post to the blog, I turned it into a blog to promote other authors – all they had to do was send me an excerpt and links, and I’d post it for them.
Then there was the red interview blog, Pat Bertram Introduces . . ., another blog to promote other authors. All they had to do was follow the directions, and I’d post and promote an interview about them and their books.
It seems naïve now, but back at the beginning, even before I had a single book published, I thought if I promoted other authors, they would in turn promote me. Um. No. Both book blogs were popular, and I seemed to be spending hours every week posting the excerpts and interviews, but when I realized all my work did nothing to help with the sales of my books — that in all those years, only one or two authors ever thought to reciprocate — I made reciprocation “payment” for my promotional efforts. And both blogs died. (I’d also had a promo group on FB for authors to post links to their books, but it was a reciprocal thing — they had to like or share other people’s work. When I realized that they were sharing only their friend’s posts but not mine, I got vindictive and erased everyone from the group. It was too much work for nothing.)
As it turns out, it’s good I have all these blogs just sitting there. I’ll probably need a continuing range of such blogs to stay ahead of FB’s vendetta against this blog.
I tend to think the bio I put on the bottom of each blog is the issue. Originally, I had several links in the bio rather than the single link I have now, but the damage has been done. I’m certainly not going to remove the bio just to pacify the computers that run an increasingly dubious site because the bio is important. There are many automatic blogs that pick up and post any blog they can find, and for a while, they did this to me quite regularly. I could complain and get the offending blog sites removed from WordPress, but more kept springing up. Other people had the same problem, and the only recourse they had was to make sure there were a bio and links in the blog so that it would link back to the original author. So that’s what I did. This way, it doesn’t make as much difference if someone steals the whole article — the message still gets out there.
I suppose if I had used a different bio each day, the computers wouldn’t have picked up on it, but it’s too late now.
And anyway, it will give me a use for that whole rainbow’s worth of blogs.
***
Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator
I’m still doing my one card a day tarot study, though I’m not sure if I’m learning anything. The whole thing confuses me — if the card tells me what I already know about myself, then it seems unnecessary. It it’s supposed to help me see where I am going, then that too seems unnecessary since I will know what I know when I get there. And if it’s about delving deeper into my psyche and coming in contact with my higher self — well, so far that hasn’t happened.
It’s possible the lack is in the tarot itself. After all, the tarot is only a deck of cards — specialized cards, but still just cards. Although each card is assigned a meaning of sorts, a core truth, the cards are open to interpretation, so whatever a person thinks the card means that particular day is the meaning, and that meaning can be different on a different day. This all seems too imprecise and ambiguous for my logical and concrete mind.
It’s possible the lack is in me, not just my inability to intuit any meanings, but my inability to connect with any particular deck. It’s possible I’ll be able to find such a deck — after all, I have dozens of them. Each month I use a different deck, and so far, the ones I’ve used are off-putting. The artwork doesn’t speak to me, and the symbolism of the artwork seems specious at best. Still, I’m sure I will find an affinity with at least one, and then we’ll see if my studies take a different turn.
Having said that, I’ve been keeping track of my daily card, and I do see a pattern to the cards I pick, vague though that pattern might be, because the same cards seems to show up again and again. For example, the king and queen of pentacles show up at least once every month, sometimes two or three times. Since I pick a card randomly, this repetition seems to indicate that more than mere chance is at work. If I used the same deck all the time, I’d think that perhaps the card hadn’t been shuffled well enough or was sticky or had some sort of defect that made the card stand out, but I use a different deck every month.
These two cards do seem to be a reflection of my life. The queen, in a few words, represents someone who is secure in her personal possessions and in her place in life, and the king refers to stability and not having to prove oneself. Since the cards are open to interpretation, and since every tarot writer has assigned various meanings, these few words don’t tell the whole story, but they suffice for the purposes of this article.
Another and seemingly opposite card that I get frequently is the ten of swords which spells ruination, disaster, calamity, though this seems to reflect my thoughts about the current USA situation rather than my own. The card is also a reminder that though I can’t change the actions of another person, I can change how I respond, which seems a timely reminder, for sure.
The cards I pick are mostly swords and pentacles. Very few cups or wands. Very few of the major arcana, though The Tower shows up periodically, which among other things, points to changes — a release of tension that has been building up, a flash of sudden insight, or maybe a warning.
So does any of this mean anything? I don’t know. My daily card pick is helping me get used to the tarot, and it is getting me familiar with the various way experts interpret the cards, so that’s something. The card itself sometimes seems to refer to me, sometimes it seems to refer to what’s going on in the rest of the country, sometimes it seems to be a reflection of my worries. But does it add anything to what I know? Not that I can see.
Sometimes the cards tell me I am more intuitive than I know, other times they seem to think I rely on my intellect. Either way, does it matter?
I do try to find a bit of advice in the daily card, as I did with the ten of swords mentioned above, but these are merely reminders of what I already know.
I suppose it’s possible that after years of study, I might find . . . something. But then, that’s not the point of my studying. I have the cards, and I do find the array of the different decks compelling, and if there is any esoteric knowledge hidden in the cards, I’d like to know what it is. But more than that, it’s about connecting with my deceased brother, the one who collected the cards. “Connecting” might be the wrong word since I’m not trying to connect with him in any psychic way. It’s more that I am connecting with my memory of him, with the private person buried beneath his polarizing personality, the beloved brother I lost way before his death.
That connection, if nothing else, does give my daily card reading a meaning.
***
Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator
Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One debunks many established beliefs about what grief is, explains how it affects those left behind, and shows how to adjust to a world that no longer contains the loved one. “It is exactly what folk need to read who are grieving.”(Leesa Heely Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator ).
“I am Bob, the Right Hand of God. As part of the galactic renewal program, God has accepted an offer from a development company on the planet Xerxes to turn Earth into a theme park. Not even God can stop progress, but to tell the truth, He’s glad of the change. He’s never been satisfied with Earth. For one thing, there are too many humans on it. He’s decided to eliminate anyone who isn’t nice, and because He’s God, He knows who you are; you can’t talk your way out of it as you humans normally do.”
While sorting through her deceased husband’s effects, Amanda is shocked to discover a gun and the photo of an unknown girl who resembles their daughter. After dedicating her life to David and his vocation as a pastor, the evidence that her devout husband kept secrets devastates Amanda. But Amanda has secrets of her own. . .
When Pat’s adult dance classmates discover she is a published author, the women suggest she write a mystery featuring the studio and its aging students. One sweet older lady laughingly volunteers to be the victim, and the others offer suggestions to jazz up the story. Pat starts writing, and then . . . the murders begin.
Thirty-seven years after being abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Colorado, Becka Johnson returns to try to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? And why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen?
When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents -- grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born -- she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.
In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable, bio-engineered disease, investigative reporter Greg Pullman risks everything to discover the truth: Who unleashed the deadly organism? And why?
Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in SE Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her new funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on?
Grief: The Great Yearning is not a how-to but a how-done, a compilation of letters, blog posts, and journal entries Pat Bertram wrote while struggling to survive her first year of grief. This is an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.
Bertram's Blog 