Grief Alchemy A Story of Hospice Marion Wilson Gruzalski 9780692722909 Books
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This is the true story of a woman whose life was transformed by grief over the loss of three of her children. The overwhelming power of her grief pushed her to the depths of despair and thoughts of suicide. Within this darkness she caught a glimpse of a place that was perfectly peaceful. This glimpse transformed her life and changed her view of the world. It set her on a spiritual journey that led her to found one of the first full-service Medicare Certified hospices in the United States at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. This is a unique story of someone who, with complete trust in her visions, her dreams, her inner voice, and the power of love, committed herself to help those who are dying and their loved ones. Marion became an inspiration to others who witnessed her vision becoming a “brick and mortar” reality. Her story is especially uplifting for those involved in hospice and for those experiencing loss. Marion's narrative alternates between sad, funny, surprising, and back again. It is a good read for anyone seeking inspiration.
Grief Alchemy A Story of Hospice Marion Wilson Gruzalski 9780692722909 Books
As a sometimes hospice volunteer this book encourages me to think about getting back into it. Marion’s grief and commitment to hospice are phenomenal. Her meditation experiences and her dream visions might be impossible to believe except that they are confirmed in the development of the hospice and by Dr. Storey who witnessed some of these (he came a year after the start which was full of such stuff). I found Marion’s running out of money suspenseful and at times humorous, especially when the universe provided exactly what she needed and not a dime more.One memorable example is when the salary, travel expenses, and a living arrangement are needed for Dr. Lamberton. They all pop up at the last minute just days before Dr. Lamberton arrives with his family from England.
Marion is an extraordinary person, as are several people I know. I've been fortunate to have met and spent time with at least nine such beings, and, for those that I knew long enough, at times they were exceptionally "magic" and at other times exceptionally normal with a few warts. I've learned from each and the presence of each in my life has partly molded the person I am.
One of these persons is a very senior Buddhist monk. Many think of him as a “saint” or a spirit that visits them in their dreams. I know that upon occasion his energy has created extraordinary results (not miraculous results: a miracle has to be something physically impossible and the physically impossible is just that, impossible on the physical plain--hence "extraordinary"). Marion too has drifted into the realm of the extraordinary. Once she was in Maine, deep in a logging area and camping next to a roaring New England crashing stream. She was reliant on a VW van to get her out of the raw forest. The van wouldn't start. A mechanic type was in the woods and verified that the engine was only getting a spark to one cylinder. Fifty miles from the nearest town, all of that on a haul road, that was a bleak diagnosis for Marion and her driver. Marion fell very silent, stood by the engine, and asked the driver to start the car. It started! Marion told the driver they had to go immediately back to where they had started their trip since that was the “agreement” with the Universe: "do not shut off the engine even when getting gas."
Marion also had a remarkable start. When she was three her father would bring his friends and neighbors by to listen to Marion read the newspaper. Yup, she has a jump start. On the other hand, like the senior monk I know well, they both have their warts.
In the interest of full disclosure (without giving away the person behind my Happy Poet alias), Marion thanks me and others in the acknowledgements.
From Happy Poet to poetry... A very good Buddhist poet and a friend who lives in England told me he thought the first chapter was a poem. I mentioned that to a teller working in the local branch of my bank. The teller was reading the book and was several chapters beyond the first chapter. She totally disagreed. “It’s too sad to be a poem,” she said. “Well,” said I, “think of it as a sad poem but still a very good one: the vision at the beginning and the chilling l realization at the end.”
I would give this book six out of five stars even if I didn't know several of the characters in the book and, instead, had just purchased it and read it.
It is a privilege to have GRIEF ALCHEMY as the first published title presented by Wild Pelican Press. There are three "hot" titles forthcoming. Two are highly contentious political books about the 2016 presidential election in the USA and why one of the candidates would lead us to war and thus why we have a moral imperative to vote for the other one. There will also be a book of poems none of which have ever before been published in the USA (most are from Ireland, a few from England, and a couple of mine that were published in Ireland).
If I had to be limited to five stars for assessing book, I'd still give it 10 stars. Should you decide to purchase it and read it, I urge you to choose the paperback version ($14.95) rather than the Kindle version ($9.95)--- even though Wild Pelican Press makes roughly twice the royalties on a Kindle version. The reason for getting the paperback is that it can be shared. How do you share a Kindle? Besides, if the paperback is lying around others might notice the beautiful cover and ask you about the book. (The royalties from a paperback that two people look at and hold cost approximately 1/4 the royalties to the imprint from buying two Kindles. It's not that I don't want Wild Pelican Press to make a bundle, I do, but that's not the main reason I've published this book. The forthcoming political titles will sell plenty: one's about Hillary and the other involves a conceptional analysis of Donald's "America First!" plus the implications of "America First!" for public policy.)
GRIEF ALCHEMY has it all: sadness, spine tingling serendipity, practical examples of grieving, extraordinary powers from the Unseen, the power of love, laughter, belly laughs, reminders of the heart of the Universe, a marriage proposal that gets accepted, a trip to Thailand, and even some Buddhism in England.
Dr. Story, when he wrote the Introduction, was the best hospice physician and the best palliative care physician in the country. Because the connection between the author and I the publisher developed painfully slow Snail Energy, it was two years after Dr. Storey wrote the introduction that the book was finally published. When I first read Dr. Storey's Introduction, I was stopped cold in my tracks by the question with which he began the introduction. To tell the truth, I was worried. I thought he should have focused on hospice or at least grief but, instead, he began by saying that Marion was a “mystic.”
Since the book's been selling, I assume his question didn't discourage those who had decided to purchase it. And I have to admit that when I relax into his question, and not worry about sales, his question is a good one: “Ever wonder about the making of a modern mystic? What brings them to such deep illuminating insights, what were they really like, and then what do they do with them?”
Dr. Storey clearly focuses on something that I hadn’t highlighted in my brain, even though it is frustratingly true of Marion: “She refuses to blame anyone. Her courage, willingness to look ‘a tidal wave of grief’ in the face, is really inspiring. Her discovery of the unnameable open peaceful place and ‘all that I was not’ resonates with the enlightenment accounts of several historic and modern day mystics in the West as well as in Buddhism and the teachers of Advainta Vedanta. The descriptions of her sensations, dreams, and ‘indescribable’ experiences that changed her life forty plus years ago are riveting” and point clearly from the ineffable.
Dr. Storey continues, “I was one of the many professionals that went to work for a woman and organization that had no idea how they would pay this month’s utility bill, much less our promised salary. Marion just continually reassured us the money would come, and she was (nearly) always right.... Hospice and Palliative Medicine have remained my full time calling for the last 30 years.”
Dr. Storey’s closing words in his Introduction resonate with my feelings and thoughts precisely: “Enjoy this amazing story. Marion’s remarkable trust in the unfolding of the universe and power of love have clearly influenced my life and may touch yours too!”
Thank you, Dr. Storey, whom I haven't seen in many years but is a friend with whom I would like to share a few chuckles, some memories, and an hour or so of silent meditation. The story has, as he knows, touched my life for decades. And may it touch yours too, potential reader.
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Tags : Grief Alchemy: A Story of Hospice [Marion Wilson Gruzalski] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This is the true story of a woman whose life was transformed by grief over the loss of three of her children. The overwhelming power of her grief pushed her to the depths of despair and thoughts of suicide. Within this darkness she caught a glimpse of a place that was perfectly peaceful. This glimpse transformed her life and changed her view of the world. It set her on a spiritual journey that led her to found one of the first full-service Medicare Certified hospices in the United States at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. This is a unique story of someone who,Marion Wilson Gruzalski,Grief Alchemy: A Story of Hospice,Wild Pelican Press,0692722904,MEDICAL Holistic Medicine
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Grief Alchemy A Story of Hospice Marion Wilson Gruzalski 9780692722909 Books Reviews
Today, throughout the world, hospice and palliative care are accepted medical practices, as common as emergency and pediatric care. As unbelievable as it may seem today, hospice was not part of standard medical practice until very recently. In the beginning, there were a few heroes who made hospice a reality. Marion Wilson is one of them. Her dedication, persistence, and self-sacrifice created the hospice program in Houston at the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical consortium in the world. More than just a book about Marion Wilson, this book also tells the stories of other personalities, some who were courageous medical innovators and uncharacteristically self-sacrificing, and others who, like many of us, preferred the established ways of practicing medicine. And some wanted to follow a profitable business model. It's all here, in this book. The celebrities and high rollers who took risks, the cowardly, who did not.
Grief Alchemy recounts Marion Wilson's amazing transformation of personal despair into self-denying service to others. While in the darkest days of a depression, after the deaths of three children, she discovered how to clear her mind and focus on the moment. Meditation brought her back into the light. What followed was a life of resilience, persistent dedication, and clarity of purpose, a life that influenced hospice programs throughout the nation and abroad.
--Jack Weir, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, Morehead State University, Kentucky
With compassion, courage, and fortitude, Marion Gruzalski tackles a subject many of us avoid terminal illness and death. A pioneer in creating a full-time hospice in the United States, Marion first etches in her own life story, which included the death of three children, and then goes on to tell how she transformed her grief by dedicating her life to helping others who faced similar life-changing events. Inspired by prophetic dreams and unseen forces, though a novice at creating a public institution, she forges her path with remarkable perseverance and succeeds in establishing a full-time hospice in Houston, Texas. After this initial success, she became much sought-after as an authority in the field, helping to create other hospices, both in the United States and abroad.
Grief Alchemy is a fascinating and very topical book that touches on much of what appears in various media on several related subjects—death, grief, trust, hospice, and more. These are of special interest to me as a hospice volunteer who has a mindfulness practice.
This memoir traces how a grief born of loss can be transformed into caring action that serves vital needs in our society. In doing so it provides spiritual guidance into one person’s journey to trusting her heart and vision, while giving insight into the value of accepting the way things are.
The author outlines the process of establishing a hospice service, while also describing the trials associated with this undertaking. The satisfactions, upon completion, include The inclusive team atmosphere created to run a hospice; living the Golden Rule in providing caring support for those who are dying and, often, alone.
There are practical reminders, too. Being there for another can have value beyond measure (for both parties)—you don’t have to do or say anything in particular. A simple “I’m sorry” or just showing up and, maybe, holding someone’s hand can be sufficient support for you to offer.
I especially liked the distinction drawn by Dr. Lamerton, near the end of the book, of the difference between a program and a service, based upon whether the organizers are experts who know or people who don’t know. Even if you disagree with this perspective, you’ll get his point.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is human and mortal; I think you will find something of value no matter what your background or expertise.
As a sometimes hospice volunteer this book encourages me to think about getting back into it. Marion’s grief and commitment to hospice are phenomenal. Her meditation experiences and her dream visions might be impossible to believe except that they are confirmed in the development of the hospice and by Dr. y who witnessed some of these (he came a year after the start which was full of such stuff). I found Marion’s running out of money suspenseful and at times humorous, especially when the universe provided exactly what she needed and not a dime more.
One memorable example is when the salary, travel expenses, and a living arrangement are needed for Dr. Lamberton. They all pop up at the last minute just days before Dr. Lamberton arrives with his family from England.
Marion is an extraordinary person, as are several people I know. I've been fortunate to have met and spent time with at least nine such beings, and, for those that I knew long enough, at times they were exceptionally "magic" and at other times exceptionally normal with a few warts. I've learned from each and the presence of each in my life has partly molded the person I am.
One of these persons is a very senior Buddhist monk. Many think of him as a “saint” or a spirit that visits them in their dreams. I know that upon occasion his energy has created extraordinary results (not miraculous results a miracle has to be something physically impossible and the physically impossible is just that, impossible on the physical plain--hence "extraordinary"). Marion too has drifted into the realm of the extraordinary. Once she was in Maine, deep in a logging area and camping next to a roaring New England crashing stream. She was reliant on a VW van to get her out of the raw forest. The van wouldn't start. A mechanic type was in the woods and verified that the engine was only getting a spark to one cylinder. Fifty miles from the nearest town, all of that on a haul road, that was a bleak diagnosis for Marion and her driver. Marion fell very silent, stood by the engine, and asked the driver to start the car. It started! Marion told the driver they had to go immediately back to where they had started their trip since that was the “agreement” with the Universe "do not shut off the engine even when getting gas."
Marion also had a remarkable start. When she was three her father would bring his friends and neighbors by to listen to Marion read the newspaper. Yup, she has a jump start. On the other hand, like the senior monk I know well, they both have their warts.
In the interest of full disclosure (without giving away the person behind my Happy Poet alias), Marion thanks me and others in the acknowledgements.
From Happy Poet to poetry... A very good Buddhist poet and a friend who lives in England told me he thought the first chapter was a poem. I mentioned that to a teller working in the local branch of my bank. The teller was reading the book and was several chapters beyond the first chapter. She totally disagreed. “It’s too sad to be a poem,” she said. “Well,” said I, “think of it as a sad poem but still a very good one the vision at the beginning and the chilling l realization at the end.”
I would give this book six out of five stars even if I didn't know several of the characters in the book and, instead, had just purchased it and read it.
It is a privilege to have GRIEF ALCHEMY as the first published title presented by Wild Pelican Press. There are three "hot" titles forthcoming. Two are highly contentious political books about the 2016 presidential election in the USA and why one of the candidates would lead us to war and thus why we have a moral imperative to vote for the other one. There will also be a book of poems none of which have ever before been published in the USA (most are from Ireland, a few from England, and a couple of mine that were published in Ireland).
If I had to be limited to five stars for assessing book, I'd still give it 10 stars. Should you decide to purchase it and read it, I urge you to choose the paperback version ($14.95) rather than the version ($9.95)--- even though Wild Pelican Press makes roughly twice the royalties on a version. The reason for getting the paperback is that it can be shared. How do you share a ? Besides, if the paperback is lying around others might notice the beautiful cover and ask you about the book. (The royalties from a paperback that two people look at and hold cost approximately 1/4 the royalties to the imprint from buying two s. It's not that I don't want Wild Pelican Press to make a bundle, I do, but that's not the main reason I've published this book. The forthcoming political titles will sell plenty one's about Hillary and the other involves a conceptional analysis of Donald's "America First!" plus the implications of "America First!" for public policy.)
GRIEF ALCHEMY has it all sadness, spine tingling serendipity, practical examples of grieving, extraordinary powers from the Unseen, the power of love, laughter, belly laughs, reminders of the heart of the Universe, a marriage proposal that gets accepted, a trip to Thailand, and even some Buddhism in England.
Dr. Story, when he wrote the Introduction, was the best hospice physician and the best palliative care physician in the country. Because the connection between the author and I the publisher developed painfully slow Snail Energy, it was two years after Dr. y wrote the introduction that the book was finally published. When I first read Dr. y's Introduction, I was stopped cold in my tracks by the question with which he began the introduction. To tell the truth, I was worried. I thought he should have focused on hospice or at least grief but, instead, he began by saying that Marion was a “mystic.”
Since the book's been selling, I assume his question didn't discourage those who had decided to purchase it. And I have to admit that when I relax into his question, and not worry about sales, his question is a good one “Ever wonder about the making of a modern mystic? What brings them to such deep illuminating insights, what were they really like, and then what do they do with them?”
Dr. y clearly focuses on something that I hadn’t highlighted in my brain, even though it is frustratingly true of Marion “She refuses to blame anyone. Her courage, willingness to look ‘a tidal wave of grief’ in the face, is really inspiring. Her discovery of the unnameable open peaceful place and ‘all that I was not’ resonates with the enlightenment accounts of several historic and modern day mystics in the West as well as in Buddhism and the teachers of Advainta Vedanta. The descriptions of her sensations, dreams, and ‘indescribable’ experiences that changed her life forty plus years ago are riveting” and point clearly from the ineffable.
Dr. y continues, “I was one of the many professionals that went to work for a woman and organization that had no idea how they would pay this month’s utility bill, much less our promised salary. Marion just continually reassured us the money would come, and she was (nearly) always right.... Hospice and Palliative Medicine have remained my full time calling for the last 30 years.”
Dr. y’s closing words in his Introduction resonate with my feelings and thoughts precisely “Enjoy this amazing story. Marion’s remarkable trust in the unfolding of the universe and power of love have clearly influenced my life and may touch yours too!”
Thank you, Dr. y, whom I haven't seen in many years but is a friend with whom I would like to share a few chuckles, some memories, and an hour or so of silent meditation. The story has, as he knows, touched my life for decades. And may it touch yours too, potential reader.
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