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Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: A Gift of Mourning Glories could be called a book of encouragement and inspiration. And you don't have to be recovering from a difficult loss to benefit from it. I bought it to give to a friend with cancer but ended up reading it myself. The short chapters gave me inspiration on how to live my life with more awareness of God's presence and guidance. Although I am not a gardener, I found Georgia's illustrations and analogies from her garden very helpful. I also got information on how to deal with my friends who are undergoing difficult times. I must give them time to grieve. I highly recommend this beautiful and inspirational book.
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Summary: How to Fill Your Empty Basket
Review: A Gift of Mourning Glories details the process of restoring your life after loss. The book's cover reflects the message inside. On the front are the delicate purple morning glories, covered with drops of dew. They remind me of the passion in Georgia's heart and the tears that brought her healing. Loss can be described in many ways. We often associate loss with death, but what about other losses? Have you experienced the loss of a job, marriage, health or income? The secret to recovery is looking for the gifts that are the treasures within the tragedies. Georgia quickly affirms that, "We think we are weak if we don't quickly bounce back". In this fast pace life we live in, she explains the steps necessary to begin restoration. We must clear out the old in order to begin the new. Georgia emphasizes persistence and not making excuses. She describes how God will take us beyond our fears and stretch us. We can all learn from our mistakes if we aren't afraid to make them. Georgia says, "When we slip up, don't give up. A Gift of Mourning Glories tells us how to search for the riches stored in the secret places. Rest and trust in God's divine plan, that is the key. Fill your empty basket with the promises of God and your empty basket will be filled with new beginnings, hope, joy and a new purpose.
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Summary: Seeds of Hope
Review: A Gift of Mourning Glories is refreshingly honest and real. Georgia Shaffer shares from her heart as though sitting personally with each of us. With compassion and humor Georgia draws lessons from pain and loss to give voice to the hope we can all find in life's unwanted gifts. In her book, A Gift of Mourning Glories Georgia gives encouragement from one who has "been there", a healing balm for my weary soul and provides pratical application for moving through pain and loss.
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Summary: Unwanted gifts
Review: Author Georgia Shaffer beat the odds! As a survivor of breastcancer, she endured a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and then ovarian cancer. She had one of the first bone marrow transplants. In the midst of this, her husband left her and she lost her job, since the treatments made her too weak to work. How could someone survive and thrive in spite of such losses? She writes, "I found the people giving me recovery advice lacked the life lessons to advise me how to begin anew. During those dark despairing years I longed for the book that I have written." Her attitude became "Ok I am a survivor - now what?" and her discoveries tell how troubling times can transform you. The Gift of Mourning Glories takes the reader along her honest humorous path she traveled to wholeness. She is a trailblazer marking out her progress, into five distinctive divisions that she defines and gives a elaborates on. They are G Give yourself time to grieve How to handle rage and other quandaries I Investigate and Observe Focus on creation and renewal F Find the Value Eliminating the "Somedays and If Only's" T Take the Risk Discovering the new S Share with others How your experience has value to others. It boggled my mind to imagine how she found gifts to unwrap while in the midst of single parenting her son, during the triple whammy of recurring cancer, divorce and job loss. The brief easy to digest chapters are long on hope, details and meaning. Vivid anecdotes from others, who shared their discoveries during cancer and grieving, gives you reassurance there is life after major loss. Just when her life seemed like a compost heap, Shaffer began a garden and includes many gardening tips woven into the text to encourage the reader to study the parables of growing things. We all have fallow seasons, when nothing is growing. " Healing can't be hurried . Withered blossoms are the seeds of the another season of blooms." Her testimony reminds us God is faithful to bring treasures out of tragedy. Shaffer includes an interesting discussion of how the four personalities: Sanguine, Choleric, Perfect and Phlegmatic display varied reactions to loss. Understanding this will help decrease stress with family members during times of grief and loss. On the evening news we watch others buffeted by loss mumble "I just want to get on with my life." Sometimes while we are in the grip of grief though others want us to fast forward through our pain, too. However, experts say that it takes two to five years to adjust to a new normal. A licensed psychologist Shaffer founded Mourning Glory Ministries and travels the world speaking at conferences of cancer survivors retreats and women's conferences. . . The Gift of Mourning Glories makes a wonderful get well present for a friend in a medical crisis or for your own bookshelf. The Chinese see crisis as danger and opportunity. Medical crisis's and mourning are no respecter of persons. But with God's help we too can find gifts as Shaffer did.
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Summary: From the compost of brokenness to the garden of restoration
Review: Cancer has become a household word these days, because every home, family and community has been touched, on some level, by its icy grip. In Georgia's book "A Gift of Mourning Glories", she lets us walk with her on her journey with cancer; from brokenness, to restoration of body, soul and spirit. The deeply personal feelings and experiences that Georgia shares, gives hope to the weary and encouragement to the downhearted. Georgia's struggles were not limited to cancer alone, but divorce and single parenting along with losing her job and health. Just as Jesus used the simple daily things of life to teach deep truths about victorious living, so also has Georgia used her garden to help teach the skills needed to restore life after loss. Just like Georgia's gift of morning glory seeds were not a "wanted" gift, not every gift we are given is "wanted" either. Many times, suffering and struggle are not viewed as "wanted" gifts, but God uses the hard times of our life to root us deep in His truth and love, so we can grow up tall and healthy for the glory of His beautiful garden of grace. This book is a must for everyone struggling to overcome life's darkest hours. In fact, I feel it should be in every Doctor's office waiting room, for it is there that we sit with our fears and worries. It is during those times, when pain opens us up, that we are made able to learn the depths of God's love and provisions for our lives. I have given this book to many dear friends who are hurting and discouraged and they have been comforted by it. "A Gift of Mourning Glories" is a great book for anyone that finds themselves in a support role with a cancer patient or huring loved one.
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Summary: From the compost of brokenness to the garden of restoration
Review: Cancer has become a household word these days, because every home, family and community has been touched, on some level, by its icy grip. In Georgia's book "A Gift of Mourning Glories", she lets us walk with her on her journey with cancer; from brokenness, to restoration of body, soul and spirit. The deeply personal feelings and experiences that Georgia shares, gives hope to the weary and encouragement to the downhearted. Georgia's struggles were not limited to cancer alone, but divorce and single parenting along with losing her job and health. Just as Jesus used the simple daily things of life to teach deep truths about victorious living, so also has Georgia used her garden to help teach the skills needed to restore life after loss. Just like Georgia's gift of morning glory seeds were not a "wanted" gift, not every gift we are given is "wanted" either. Many times, suffering and struggle are not viewed as "wanted" gifts, but God uses the hard times of our life to root us deep in His truth and love, so we can grow up tall and healthy for the glory of His beautiful garden of grace. This book is a must for everyone struggling to overcome life's darkest hours. In fact, I feel it should be in every Doctor's office waiting room, for it is there that we sit with our fears and worries. It is during those times, when pain opens us up, that we are made able to learn the depths of God's love and provisions for our lives. I have given this book to many dear friends who are hurting and discouraged and they have been comforted by it. "A Gift of Mourning Glories" is a great book for anyone that finds themselves in a support role with a cancer patient or huring loved one.
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Summary: A treasure of wisdom for anyone trying to rebuild her life
Review: Each chapter in Georgia's book is like opening a little present. You will smile, cry and be encouraged to have hope that no matter what you have lost, you can rebuild your life. The chapters are short so you get just enough without feeling overwhelmed. Each little story gives you something to think about and a pearl of truth to take you to the next step. Georgia writes with the wisdom and compassion of someone who has obviously suffered. She doesn't pretend to have all the answers but teaches us how to grow in spite of our losses in such small and easily digestible pieces it is a pleasure to read. I especially like all the illustrations from her garden and nature. If you have a friend who is struggling with a loss, this book would make a great gift and as a counselor, I will use it with my clients to give them hope that no matter what loss they go through, God can use it in a powerful way in their life.
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Summary: An Unexpected Gift
Review: Each of us experienced the receipt of a gift we did not want. But how many of us took the time to find a use for that gift? In her book, A Gift of Mourning Glories, Georgia Shaffer describes an unwanted gift of morning glory seeds that she received and shares her struggles in finding a place for that climbing vine in her garden. At first convinced that she could not use the seeds, her struggle turned positive when she discovered uses for that gift in both her garden and her life. Although most of us would think to compare these unwanted seeds to the serious consequences brought by cancer or death, Georgia makes a believable comparison and shows how we can change troubling times into something lovely. Pain and loss are two unwanted gifts in life. A Gift of Mourning Glories voices the spirit of triumphantly living through these "gifts". Georgia's message offers comfort and equips the reader with an action plan for healing. Georgia's experiences convey a message that provides a light for the hurting and a path for the healing.
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Summary: Sowing Seeds of Hope
Review: I found this book quite comforting after my brother's suicide in January 2001. Ms. Shaffer's use of Scripture along with gardening analogies made it easy to read. I was so inspired by her style of writing that I went searching for morning glory seeds. I began germinating right away and gave seedlings to my friends, neighbors, church family and even people I did not know. Two months later, my family relocated to Nebraska and by late summer there were beautiful flowers of heavenly blue, baby blue, and pink along the fenceline...a gentle reminder of the fragility of life. In Texas, an elderly neighbor had once planted morning glories. I would wake each morning, draw the curtains and count the blossoms as they unfolded. On one certain morning, there were over one hundred gorgeous blue flowers...one hundred blessings that I may have taken for granted. Thank you, Georgia, for encouraging me to sow those seeds of hope.
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Summary: Blossoms of Hope
Review: Just as the tendrils of morning glories entwine the cover of Georgia Shaffer's book, "A Gift of Mourning Glories", her true life stories in easy-to-read short chapters will entwine your heart. Georgia offers hope from one who has been in the pit of hopelessness to those who have suffered loss using lessons God taught her through her garden (And I love the added bonus of her gardening tips in sidebars.) No pious platitudes here, simply encouraging accounts of "Here's how I made it - you can too!" "A Gift Of Mourning Glories" is a refreshing resource for a church library or to give to a friend who is struggling. I plan to buy several!
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