2023 Silver Nautilus Book Award winner!
10.16.93. DREAM
Jim goes to the sink and looks at his reflection in the mirror.
He says to himself: “I feel that I am on the edge of something very mysterious.”
I reach for him, turn him around, beg for a hug.
He gives me a wonderful, warm, full-body one, then kisses me on the lips.
“I’m going to build you a house in the clouds,” he says.
This remarkable, unconventional—even adventurous—account of the author’s loss of her husband and her fierce determination to find him again beyond death, blazes a new trail in books about recovery from heartbreak. Through poetry, quotations, and powerful storytelling, this book bypasses the typical psychological stages of grief model. Instead, it offers a new and compelling exploration of the three spiritual challenges every bereaved person must meet: Body: Will grief kill me? Soul: Who am I without my beloved? Spirit: What is my source of strength?
As Rondi Lightmark charts her journey to healing over the course of her first year alone, it is a time filled with hope and dreams, amazing synchronicities, and contact from her husband via a very unique messenger from the natural world both joyful and humorous--and so extraordinary, it defines her new path in life for decades to come.
RONDI LIGHTMARK lives on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest, and can be found most days in a colorful, very small cottage with a desk, cupboard bed, tea kettle, and nearby garden. She has a Masters in psychology from Saybrook University and has been an educator, school administrator, grief counselor, professional photographer and since 1996, a professional writer. Her first book, co-written with dog trainer April Frost is titled "Beyond Obedience: Training with Awareness for You and Your Dog" (Crown, 1999), and introduced the concept of using visualization to empower training cues. It was the first of its kind to teach this approach. She has worked as a writer for both Omega Institute and Esalen Institute, America's two leading holistic and educational retreat centers. In 2005, she launched Lightmark Press, a popular greeting card company featuring her graphic arts images of dogs in cars, combined with her humorous or poignant captions. In 2019, she sold the company and created The Whole Vashon Project, using education and the arts to unite the Vashon Island community around working on the climate crisis. She is dedicating the rest of her writing life to this effort.
