You don’t need to hear that they’re in a better place. You’re in pain right now, and no amount of sympathy cards is going to take that away. But what you’re going through is universal: grief is something none of us can escape. Grief touches us all, yet no two experiences are exactly the same. In fact, approximately 2.5 million people die each year in the US alone, leaving behind an average of five people who will experience intense grief.

Does that make it any better? No. Of course, it doesn’t. But it does mean that you’re not alone, and there are people who’ve stood exactly where you’re standing right now who can help guide you out of the darkness.

Rachel Marie Rabatin is no stranger to grief, and through An Original Grief Guide, she channels what she’s learned on her own journey into frank discussions and practical advice that you can use as a framework for your own experience.

Grief isn’t limited to losing a loved one.

• Life changes.
• Relationships breakdown.
• The death of a pet.
• The loss of a job.

All of these things can trigger a grief response, and that grief should be acknowledged and honored. That is the answer to moving forward. That is the answer to finding hope again. But when you’re caught in the depths of grief, processing your emotions is often an insurmountable task on its own, let alone honoring them.

An Original Grief Guide aims to be a string of lights along a dark and lonely path. Each one will guide you through with honest and vulnerable accounts of someone who walked her own dark path and knows exactly how much it hurts.

Any audiobook that claims you can get over your grief is lying to you. Grief isn’t something you overcome: it’s something that you live with and eventually come to understand. Hopefully, you’ll find a way to turn it into something beautiful. In the Japanese art of Kintsugi, cracks in broken pottery are repaired with gold. That is what we’re aiming for on this journey...and that’s just where you’re heading right now.