Hidden Grace: Growing Through Loss and Grief
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I have experienced grief from the deaths of several significant persons in my life. Two decades after my father’s death (mentioned above), my mother suddenly died four days after her 88th birthday. On the day of her funeral, our family was gathering for lunch before going to the funeral home for her service. Our daughter Kym had not arrived so my two sons went to her residence a few miles away to check on her. They discovered that she had been murdered. This experience became one of the defining moments in my life and in coping with the after-effects of this traumatic event I gained a totally new perspective on grief and bereavement, a perspective that now influences how I teach about grief and how I personally continue to process grief.
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About the Book
Hidden Grace: Growing through Loss and Grief offers a hopeful model of bereavement for persons experiencing painful losses. Rather than viewing this universal human experience as an illness to be cured or sorrow to be tolerated, Blevins portrays grief as a holistic process that offers the possibility of personal transformation when life is shattered by a significant loss. Blevins draws upon his experience as a mental-health professional and university professor and the traumatic loss of his daughter. He affirms that while grief is agonizing, it is a normal and instinctive human response that can nurture personal growth and wholeness grounded in meditative spirituality. In this way, grief can become both gift and grace in responding to a significant loss, depending upon how one chooses to respond.
About the Author
William L. Blevins, professor emeritus of counseling, served on the faculty at Carson Newman for forty-six years, retiring as chair of the Graduate Program in Counseling in 2011. He holds an MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a PhD (New Testament Greek) from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, an EdS (counseling psychology) from the University of Tennessee, and has done post-graduate work at Oxford University, England. He retired as a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and a licensed professional counselor (LPC) in Jefferson City, Tennessee. He has authored four books and numerous articles in professional journals, and currently serves as director of the William Blevins Institute for Spirituality and Mental Health at Carson Newman University.