![[Review] My Grief Jar: Still Growing After the Loss of My Daughter (Deborah Waffle) Summarized](https://episodes.castos.com/660078c6833215-59505987/images/2351415/c1a-085k3-gp5dzkjdiog6-gmwqhl.jpg)
Show Notes
My Grief Jar: Still Growing After the Loss of My Daughter (Deborah Waffle)
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHV6JTRR?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/My-Grief-Jar%3A-Still-Growing-After-the-Loss-of-My-Daughter-Deborah-Waffle.html
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=My+Grief+Jar+Still+Growing+After+the+Loss+of+My+Daughter+Deborah+Waffle+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/B0DHV6JTRR/
#childloss #bereavedparent #griefmemoir #faithandgrief #healingjourney #MyGriefJar
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, Grief as a lived container, not a stage checklist, A central idea suggested by the grief jar metaphor is that loss does not move neatly through predictable steps. Instead, grief collects experiences across days and years, sometimes settling, sometimes shaking loose again. This perspective can be validating for readers who feel they are failing because their emotions return unexpectedly. The jar image makes room for multiple truths at once: love and anguish, gratitude and rage, calm mornings and crushing afternoons. It also implies that the goal is not to empty the jar but to learn how to carry it differently. In practice, this approach encourages gentler self assessment. Rather than asking Am I over this, a bereaved person can ask What is in my jar today and what do I need to handle it. The book’s focus on ongoing growth highlights that grief changes shape as circumstances change: anniversaries, family milestones, holidays, and quiet ordinary moments can all bring new layers. By framing grief as an evolving relationship to loss, the narrative supports patience, self compassion, and realistic expectations about what coping looks like over time.
Secondly, Parenthood, identity, and the continuing bond with a child, The loss of a child can disrupt identity at a profound level, because parenting is not only a role but also a future imagined in detail. This book emphasizes that a parent’s love does not end with death, and that maintaining a continuing bond can be healthy and meaningful. Continuing bonds can include speaking the child’s name, sharing stories, keeping traditions, and finding personal ways to honor the child’s impact. The grief jar concept supports this by offering a space to hold memories alongside pain, without treating remembrance as a barrier to healing. The narrative also highlights the tension many bereaved parents feel between wanting to keep their child close and needing to function in daily life. Readers can recognize the legitimacy of both needs. Identity reconstruction becomes part of the journey: learning who you are now, how your family looks now, and how you want your child’s life to be represented in your ongoing choices. By portraying grief as ongoing growth, the book suggests that carrying love forward can coexist with rebuilding routines, relationships, and purpose, even when the loss remains permanently significant.
Thirdly, Faith, meaning making, and spiritual resilience, For many people, a devastating loss reshapes faith, sometimes strengthening it and sometimes complicating it. The book’s tone points toward a faith influenced path through grief, where spiritual practices and prayerful reflection can become tools for endurance rather than quick fixes. Meaning making is not presented as a tidy explanation for tragedy, but as a gradual effort to locate hope, connection, and purpose while still acknowledging unanswered questions. This can include wrestling with beliefs, renegotiating expectations of what comfort looks like, and learning to live with mystery. Spiritual resilience in this context is less about always feeling uplifted and more about returning, again and again, to sources of steadiness: community, scripture, worship, silence, or personal rituals of remembrance. The grief jar metaphor supports spiritual practice by making room for paradox, allowing someone to hold sorrow and faith side by side without forcing either to disappear. Readers who are spiritual may find reassurance in the idea that doubt, anger, and lament can be part of an honest faith journey, and that growth can occur even when joy feels distant.
Fourthly, Daily survival and the reality of non linear healing, After profound loss, the most basic tasks can become difficult, and people often underestimate how much endurance the early months require. This book underscores that survival is not a lesser achievement; it is a meaningful form of strength. Non linear healing shows up in the way certain days feel manageable and others do not, even when nothing obvious has changed. By acknowledging this pattern, the narrative helps normalize fluctuations in mood, energy, concentration, and social capacity. Readers may recognize the practical questions grief forces: How do I get through mornings, handle work, attend events, or respond to casual questions. The grief jar image can be applied to daily coping by encouraging small, repeatable practices: checking in with emotions, allowing tears without shame, creating space for rest, and identifying supports that do not demand performance. It also emphasizes that triggers are not failures but signals of love and memory. Over time, growth may look like increasing capacity rather than decreasing love: the ability to carry grief while re engaging with responsibilities, relationships, and moments of peace when they appear.
Lastly, Support systems, empathy gaps, and speaking about loss, Grief often reveals how uncomfortable society can be with death, especially the death of a child. Well meaning people may offer minimizing comments, spiritual shortcuts, or awkward silence. The book’s reflective approach highlights the importance of finding support that can hold the truth without rushing it. This includes trusted friends, family members, faith communities, counselors, and peer groups who understand bereavement. It also involves learning to communicate needs, which can be hard when energy is low and emotions are raw. The grief jar metaphor provides language for explaining that grief is carried, revisited, and integrated over time, not solved by advice. Readers can take from this the permission to set boundaries, decline gatherings, or request specific kinds of help. Another key theme is honoring the child through conversation rather than avoiding their name. Speaking about the child can reduce isolation and affirm the reality of their life. By addressing empathy gaps and the complexities of social support, the book encourages readers to seek relationships that offer steady presence, practical assistance, and respect for the ongoing nature of bereaved parenting.
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHV6JTRR?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/My-Grief-Jar%3A-Still-Growing-After-the-Loss-of-My-Daughter-Deborah-Waffle.html
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=My+Grief+Jar+Still+Growing+After+the+Loss+of+My+Daughter+Deborah+Waffle+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://english.9natree.com/read/B0DHV6JTRR/
#childloss #bereavedparent #griefmemoir #faithandgrief #healingjourney #MyGriefJar
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, Grief as a lived container, not a stage checklist, A central idea suggested by the grief jar metaphor is that loss does not move neatly through predictable steps. Instead, grief collects experiences across days and years, sometimes settling, sometimes shaking loose again. This perspective can be validating for readers who feel they are failing because their emotions return unexpectedly. The jar image makes room for multiple truths at once: love and anguish, gratitude and rage, calm mornings and crushing afternoons. It also implies that the goal is not to empty the jar but to learn how to carry it differently. In practice, this approach encourages gentler self assessment. Rather than asking Am I over this, a bereaved person can ask What is in my jar today and what do I need to handle it. The book’s focus on ongoing growth highlights that grief changes shape as circumstances change: anniversaries, family milestones, holidays, and quiet ordinary moments can all bring new layers. By framing grief as an evolving relationship to loss, the narrative supports patience, self compassion, and realistic expectations about what coping looks like over time.
Secondly, Parenthood, identity, and the continuing bond with a child, The loss of a child can disrupt identity at a profound level, because parenting is not only a role but also a future imagined in detail. This book emphasizes that a parent’s love does not end with death, and that maintaining a continuing bond can be healthy and meaningful. Continuing bonds can include speaking the child’s name, sharing stories, keeping traditions, and finding personal ways to honor the child’s impact. The grief jar concept supports this by offering a space to hold memories alongside pain, without treating remembrance as a barrier to healing. The narrative also highlights the tension many bereaved parents feel between wanting to keep their child close and needing to function in daily life. Readers can recognize the legitimacy of both needs. Identity reconstruction becomes part of the journey: learning who you are now, how your family looks now, and how you want your child’s life to be represented in your ongoing choices. By portraying grief as ongoing growth, the book suggests that carrying love forward can coexist with rebuilding routines, relationships, and purpose, even when the loss remains permanently significant.
Thirdly, Faith, meaning making, and spiritual resilience, For many people, a devastating loss reshapes faith, sometimes strengthening it and sometimes complicating it. The book’s tone points toward a faith influenced path through grief, where spiritual practices and prayerful reflection can become tools for endurance rather than quick fixes. Meaning making is not presented as a tidy explanation for tragedy, but as a gradual effort to locate hope, connection, and purpose while still acknowledging unanswered questions. This can include wrestling with beliefs, renegotiating expectations of what comfort looks like, and learning to live with mystery. Spiritual resilience in this context is less about always feeling uplifted and more about returning, again and again, to sources of steadiness: community, scripture, worship, silence, or personal rituals of remembrance. The grief jar metaphor supports spiritual practice by making room for paradox, allowing someone to hold sorrow and faith side by side without forcing either to disappear. Readers who are spiritual may find reassurance in the idea that doubt, anger, and lament can be part of an honest faith journey, and that growth can occur even when joy feels distant.
Fourthly, Daily survival and the reality of non linear healing, After profound loss, the most basic tasks can become difficult, and people often underestimate how much endurance the early months require. This book underscores that survival is not a lesser achievement; it is a meaningful form of strength. Non linear healing shows up in the way certain days feel manageable and others do not, even when nothing obvious has changed. By acknowledging this pattern, the narrative helps normalize fluctuations in mood, energy, concentration, and social capacity. Readers may recognize the practical questions grief forces: How do I get through mornings, handle work, attend events, or respond to casual questions. The grief jar image can be applied to daily coping by encouraging small, repeatable practices: checking in with emotions, allowing tears without shame, creating space for rest, and identifying supports that do not demand performance. It also emphasizes that triggers are not failures but signals of love and memory. Over time, growth may look like increasing capacity rather than decreasing love: the ability to carry grief while re engaging with responsibilities, relationships, and moments of peace when they appear.
Lastly, Support systems, empathy gaps, and speaking about loss, Grief often reveals how uncomfortable society can be with death, especially the death of a child. Well meaning people may offer minimizing comments, spiritual shortcuts, or awkward silence. The book’s reflective approach highlights the importance of finding support that can hold the truth without rushing it. This includes trusted friends, family members, faith communities, counselors, and peer groups who understand bereavement. It also involves learning to communicate needs, which can be hard when energy is low and emotions are raw. The grief jar metaphor provides language for explaining that grief is carried, revisited, and integrated over time, not solved by advice. Readers can take from this the permission to set boundaries, decline gatherings, or request specific kinds of help. Another key theme is honoring the child through conversation rather than avoiding their name. Speaking about the child can reduce isolation and affirm the reality of their life. By addressing empathy gaps and the complexities of social support, the book encourages readers to seek relationships that offer steady presence, practical assistance, and respect for the ongoing nature of bereaved parenting.
