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Flash of Life

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

Second Edition, June 2002 by Kara L.C. Jones 10 digit ISBN 1-929359-15-2 13 digit ISBN 978-1-929359-15-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2002092667 Price: $10.00   Sorry, no longer available.

About the Book

This second edition includes the full, original narrative plus a 2002 Foreword, an updated Resource guide for finding online and offline bereavement support, and information about The Mrs. Duck Project.

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.

[Please note: First edition of this book was released August 1999 with previous ISBN 1-929359-01-2, but it is no longer available.]

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: Katie; Laura

Author Bio

Kara L.C. Jones, Grief Coach & Artist, is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where she concurrently did a 3 year mentorship with Hedda Sharapan at Family Communications, Inc., producers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Her poetic and non-fiction works have been included in publications such as New Works Review, PoetsWest, Real Henna, Conari Press book "Meant To Be", LightHearts Publication's "Soul Trek", MISSing Angels Newsletter, American Tanka, Mother Tongue Ink's We'Moon, Honored Babies, Adams Media's Cup of Comfort series, and more. Because she refused to give her grief writing over to the control of outside editors and publishers after the death of her son, she and her husband Hawk founded KotaPress in 1999 as a creative outlet for their expressive artworks. She is a certified Reiki Master Teacher working in this modality since 2004. She has been facilitating online and in-person workshops for over 10 year, including sessions offered at the International MISS Conferences, WA State Poets Association Burning Word festivals, and Course Bridge. She holds seats on both the WA State and National MISS Foundation boards, is a facilitator and HOPE mentor for bereaved families, and is the moderator for the Creation Station forum on the MISS national site.

Editor/Designer Bio

Hawk Jones has been a singer, composer, song writer, talk jock, street preacher, filmmaker, photographer and more in his lifetime. You may currently find him on the gallery scene showing his photos in the Pacific NW area. In his work at KotaPress, he keep the creative look alive. If you like this website, then you like his work as he created it from design to code. He and his wife started KotaPress in memory of their son Dakota.