Reliving - Coming Back From the Abyss: Learning to Live Again After Loss

Five days after the mother of his four children died, Tad Sisler stood before hundreds of couples at a Valentine's celebration, singing love songs with his band. Somehow, he made it through the performance. What he couldn't imagine was how he would begin the rest of his life.

How do we find our way back when the life we once knew has disappeared?

We've all experienced loss. Sometimes it's the death of someone we dearly love. Sometimes it's a marriage, a relationship, a career, our health, or a future we spent years believing would be ours. We replay conversations, question decisions, and wonder what might have happened if we'd done just one thing differently. We experience guilt, anger, loneliness, and sorrow, sometimes long after everyone around us expects us to have moved on.

But what if the years ahead could still hold extraordinary possibilities?

That's the double meaning behind RELIVING. We relive our past, sometimes painfully, but we can also learn to re-live—to rediscover happiness, find new purpose, build new relationships, and perhaps reinvent ourselves in ways we never imagined.

In this deeply personal and inspiring book, award-winning author, musician, and filmmaker Tad Sisler shares his own remarkable experiences with devastating grief, shattered dreams, family tragedies, financial hardship, and the difficult process of rebuilding a life. With unusual candor, he writes about his mistakes, the guilt he carried for decades, the people who helped him, and the unexpected happiness that eventually found its way back into his life.

Alongside his personal story are unforgettable accounts of ordinary and extraordinary people who endured enormous losses and discovered ways to embrace life again. Their experiences offer encouragement, wisdom, and sometimes a welcome dose of humor.

Through 22 compelling chapters, Sisler explores the many ways we can begin again:

• Finding hope when the future seems impossible to imagine.

• Understanding grief, guilt, regret, and forgiveness.

• Rediscovering friendship, companionship, and love.

• Overcoming loneliness and rebuilding confidence.

• Finding meaning and purpose after devastating life changes.

• Learning to welcome happiness without feeling guilty about it.

• Discovering that reinvention and new beginnings are possible at almost any age.

Each chapter concludes with five thoughtful "What to Carry Forward" reflections, offering encouragement and practical ideas that readers can apply to their own circumstances.

RELIVING is not about forgetting the people we love or pretending that tragedy hasn't changed us. It's about carrying those memories forward while making room for new experiences, new dreams, and the wonderful surprises life may still have waiting.

Written with warmth, honesty, humor, and the wisdom of a life filled with extraordinary highs and devastating lows, RELIVING offers a compassionate hand to anyone struggling with loss, loneliness, depression, heartbreak, or the feeling that life's best years may already be behind them.

We may never get back the life we lost. But we can discover another life filled with meaning, love, and possibilities we haven't yet imagined.

As Sisler's mother often reminded him:

"Life is meant for the living."

And some of the most beautiful days of your life may still be ahead of you.