Flash Of Life

*Free* eBook: Click here to get PDF download of the First Edition of Flash Of Life, originally released August 1999 by KotaPress under ISBN 1-929359-01-2.

"Flash Of Life is a book that belongs out in the world!
This is one book I've come back to again and again after Madeline's death. Such a beautiful/sad book. It was the first thing I read that I could relate to, until then I thought I might be crazy..."
~Stephanie Paige Cole, author of Still., sweetpeaproject.org

No Longer Available: Print/eBook version of the Second Edition released June 2002 by KotaPress under 10 digit ISBN 1-929359-15-2; 13 digit ISBN 978-1-929359-15-8;

Coming Soon: Third Edition of Flash Of Life will soon be available via Lulu.com in both print and eBook. We'll update here when it is available!

" I loved your book. It is so very real to me...
you said it better than I have heard it said...
very, very powerful!"
~ Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, MISS Founder

About the Book

The narrative is one family's experience of pregnancy and still-birth showing how the death of a child affects a woman, a marriage, a family, and a community. Included is a resource guide for finding online and off line support during the grieving and healing process.

If someone you know and love is enduring the death of a baby due to any cause, this can be a wonderful gift to honor the memory of that child. Perfect for those awkward holidays like Mothers/Fathers Day or the first Christmas after the death of the child-- honor that child and recognize that parent's grief with this gift.

Distribution and Rights

We give permission for anyone downloading the free eBook:

• To forward the PDF via email -- but please do NOT spam anyone!
• To make up to 50 print copies to distribute FOR FREE -- not resale -- to share with other bereaved parents and organizations.
• You must forward/copy intact as a whole work -- you do not have permission to alter, cut, or edit anything.
• If you wish to use any part of this work in any publication that is for resale, you must get permission from us first!!

Excerpt

At the shore

Dedicated to my son Dakota
born-still at full term on March 11, 1999
at 4:47pm

When I wasn't looking
my son became the ocean shore,
he became that sound of rocks
shuffling around
surfing against one another
clanking like diamonds
being polished from their rough,
he became the ebb & flow
of grief, the tide inching up on me
then suddenly flooding me,
he became wet sand
grits in my hair
rubbing my scalp raw till
only my husband's tender hands
could pick out the pieces & tangles.

My son became a baby crab
frantically crawling sideways,
scared to death when the huge rock
was suddenly turned over,
burrowed furiously under another rock--
not my rock, not my womb,
but back to the Goddess' womb--
he became a sea anemone,
an enigma to me, sometimes
wide open and pulsing when
washed over with salt water,
my tears, sometimes
hard and closed
barely moving between tides.

When I wasn't looking
my son left me and took on
the world, went back to being
the Spirit who is so
much bigger than
his tiny body was,
went back to become
that sound of surf,
lapping the shore,
the ceaselessness of waves.

Reviews

Reviewed by Laura Slap-Shelton at Grief & Renewal

Reader reviews posted at Amazon by:
Katie
Laura