A Hole In The World by Amanda Helo Opelt – Book Review
If you are dealing with the pain of losing a loved one or are stuck in the valley of grief, I’d like to share a new resource that will help you move past your loss.
The book is called A Hole In The World: Finding Hope In Rituals Of Grief And Healing by Amanda Helo Opelt and was written in the aftermath of Amanda’s own season of loss. Amanda survived three miscarriages and the unexpected death of her sister, New York Times bestselling writer Rachel Held Evans. As Amanda was confronted with an overwhelming sorrow she didn’t know to how face, she began to grapple with questions that were unexpectedly difficult to answer:
- What does it mean to truly grieve and to grieve well?
- Why is it so hard to move on?
- Why didn’t my faith prepare me for this kind of pain?
- What am I supposed to do now?
It’s out of Amanda’s search for those answers that A Hole In The World was born.
Amanda discovered that generations past dealt very differently with pain, loss and grieving than we do today. Today, we do everything we can as a culture to sanitize death and avoid pain, but our ancestors embraced many rituals and traditions that provided vessels for our pain and aided in the process of grieving and healing.
In A Hole In The World, Amanda explores the history of human grief practices and shows how previous generations dealt with the pain of loss. She delves into grief rituals and customs from a variety of cultures, including the following, which provide a framework for processing our pain:
- The Irish tradition of keening, or wailing in grief, which teaches that healing can only begin when we dive headfirst into our grief.
- The Victorian tradition of post-mortem photographs that helps us overcome our struggle to recall a loved one as they were.
- The Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, which reminds her to rest in the strength of her community even when God feels absent.
- The tradition of wearing mourning clothing, which sets the bereaved apart in society for a time and provides them with the space to honor their grief.
Although Amanda’s journey is difficult, she offers hope as she shares how God met her in the midst of her sorrow in spite of her doubt and anger.
It’s my hope that as you go through your own journey of healing from grief, sorrow and loss, that you’ll find the tools Amanda shares in A Hole In The World beneficial to you too.
I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Resources
For More Information
- Visit Worthy Publishing before the book releases on July 19, 2022 to receive pre-order bonuses.
- Visit Amazon for free release day delivery.
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Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from Worthy Publishing. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
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Grief is such a difficult journey to navigate. Amanda’s book sounds really helpful and very interesting as well. Thank you for sharing this review, Ramona.
Glad you enjoyed the review April!
Wow! This sounds so interesting and intrigues me. I never thought to explore grief traditions from the lenses of other cultures. Pausing to reflect here my friend. Blessings.