Customer Reviews

Living with Loss

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This is an excellent book on the psychology of grief and loss, with balance and sensitivity in discussing the struggles as well as the potential for new life. It's full of a lot of earthy wisdom presented in language clear as a mountain stream.

Moseley takes readers through not so much stages as overlapping aspects of loss: truly absorbing and naming one's loss; handling the anger and guilt that inevitably come with it; remembering who or what was lost and being grateful for those memories; and cultivating a sense of play and newness in life. There is much emphasis on finding suitable companions to walk with us in our time of loss.

Especially helpful was his discussion in Chapter 8 of the different voices that vie for our attention--voices from the past, from the present, from within, and from the future--and how we can listen to these voices in a way that respects our need for stability and adventure.

A pastor and pastoral theologian, Moseley writes out of a faith perspective, but explicit issues of faith are touched on only at the end, and then with gentleness. This book is suitable for people with any religious background, or none at all. The only requirement really is to have known that universal human experience of loss.

This book by Dan Moseley reaches into a difficult place and helps you find your way out. It is a work that can help a reader make some sense of the losses and tragedies that we all face during our lives. But more than that, it offers something I have never seen before. "Living With Loss" offers suggestions for those who wish to be supportive to the person who has suffered the loss. It discusses, in very clear terms, what kind of actions and words might be offered to help your loved one get through their darkest times. Thanks, Dr. Moseley, for opening your life and sharing your thoughts, so that the rest of us might heal and help others to heal.

I read this book not currently in a time of loss nor as a person of great identifiable faith, but simply in search of guidance for a friend. Inspired by its words, I sent it on to a woman I am close to who had just lost her father. I felt good about the gift & really believed that it would help, but there was more. I found that it spoke to me, even now in a happy time. I was able to look back on past losses without judgment & with a clear heart. I say take a chance on this book, it will stay with you forever.

Having been a pastor for 30 years and a seminary professor for 10 years, Dr. Dan Moseley has seen grief lived out by thousands of people, even while providing them with pastoral care. Perhaps more important, Dan has experienced profound grief in his own life. Thus, this book is not merely the intellectual musings of one who has seen grief from a distance, but the profound insight of one who has wandered in the desert of loss and found his way home. We all experience grief and all who read this book will identify with the experience and benefit from the marvelous wisdom contained in these pages.
Dr. Richard L. Hamm

As an avid reader, I have tried to gain an interest in so-called "Self-Help" books. My attempts have failed due to the books being either too clinical, too fluffy (for all of you Saturday Night Live experts out there, they read like a Stewart Smalley episode, "I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, and gosh darn-it, people like me"), too enabling, or too victimizing. I refer to these as "Band-Aid" books.

In his book "Living with Loss", Dr. Moseley, does a wonderful job staying on course with reality and staying away from being a "Band-Aid" book. This book is about owning who you are as a human, which means owning the different components of the healing process when they arise. For instance, he does not make the case that we need to apologize for our anger in a time of loss. Rather, he assures the reader that it is normal and necessary to feel that anger. Conversely, he also explains healing eventually has to come with forgiveness.

I truly appreciated the writing style that Dr. Moseley chose. The book is written in a conversational manner. Any other style of writing would create more confusion in an already confusing time. His message in the book is clear and does not require a dictionary, assuring that he does understand the human condition in times of loss. The book is one human sharing his life experience with another.

This book will help heal, or help prepare you when that loss does come. I was able to enjoy the book because it kept reminding me that Dr. Moseley truly understands, not the science of psychology, but people.

This book changed my life! It helped me recognize and name my losses. I have been through a lot of loss through the death of loved ones, change of career, and divorce. This book helped me realize that loss is often multi-leveled. When you divorce, you not only lose a spouse but often a best friend and also a dream of a future together. My favorite chapter was called "Feeling Pain" and I sobbed my way through it. I think I needed to get it out. This book helps you to "live through" your losses, not just "get through" them which many people are in a hurry to do. I don't know that we ever completely get over our losses but this book helped me to begin to live through them and also reminded me of the blessings I once had and have today. I love the line, "To feel the pain of a love lost is a sign that we have indeed loved." You need to read this book! It is for you if you've ever lost a "lover, a friend, a dog, a breast, a business, a dream..."

In life, everyone experiences loss at some point. Whether it's the death of a loved one, losing a job, surviving a divorce, suffering a miscarriage, moving homes, or any other number of changes, Dr. Dan Moseley's book teaches readers how to create new life in the absence of their old, familiar one.

Living With Loss encourages readers to go at their own pace through the dimensions of loss and grief. Dr. Moseley focuses on the space in life that loss creates, allowing room for something new to grow and develop. Unique from other grieving books, each easy-to-read chapter includes a "Good Companions" section that describes the best people with whom to surround yourself as you recover from loss.

Whether you have suffered a loss or are helping someone who has, Living With Loss is an essential resource for any time of grief.

The beautiful prose of this book first drew me in, but its humanity and keen insights kept me reading. Moseley invites readers to travel with him through different phases and experiences of grief, and this reading journey is like having counselor-guide as well as a poet-companion walking beside you. I've gone back to this book time and again and shared it with family and friends. Be ready to underline, respond in the margins, and meete a new favorite author!