The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart delivers 143 short reflections for those navigating loss and the professionals who support them.
Few experiences are as universal — and yet as profoundly lonely — as grief. The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart, Spike Humer's second release in his meditation series from SoulWord Press, provides a daily presence for anyone living with sorrow.
This book started as a prayer for a single household. In 2025, close friends of Humer and his wife, Michele, experienced the death of their son, Josh. “No language can fully capture a loss like that,” Humer reflects. “No framework exists. No solution. What remains is presence — the readiness to remain alongside someone in their pain. I realized the sole gift I could offer was what I know how to create: words. No answers. No fixes.”
Josh's name intentionally appears throughout the work. Wherever readers see his name, they are invited to insert the name of their own loved one.
The volume comprises 143 meditations, each occupying a single page, crafted to fit the limited attention span grief often leaves behind. It weaves through three recurring themes: What I'm Carrying, exploring the burden of grief and the love woven within it; What I'm Noticing, acknowledging unexpected moments of grace that still arrive; and What I'm Returning To, the gradual journey back to oneself. No promises regarding timelines are made, and no prescribed stages are offered.
A sample passage:
When the Wave Arrives Without Warning
Thank you for the gift of this day.
Please hold me through this one that came out of nowhere.
I was doing something ordinary — folding laundry, standing in the grocery store, driving to an appointment — when it arrived. Without warning. Without permission. The wave that makes the ordinary world impossible.
Please help me not be ashamed of this. It comes when it comes. There is no controlling it and no predicting it. It does not mean I am getting worse. It means I loved someone.
May I breathe through this one and meet the next.
These meditations address readers mourning a spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, or animal companion, as well as those grieving losses without a funeral — a marriage, a career, a change in health, a lifelong aspiration. The book is also being distributed to hospice programs, chaplains, grief counselors, and recovery groups.
The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart is available in paperback (177 pages, $15.99) and Kindle editions via Amazon, and through IngramSpark to booksellers and libraries. A facilitator's guide for group and institutional settings is in development.
ABOUT SOULWORD PRESS
SoulWord Press is an independent publisher focused on contemplative works about presence, growth, and the inner life. Its catalog features the I Am Becoming journal series and The Gift of This Day meditation series. Learn more at SoulWordPress.com.
For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:
Spike Humer
BrightKey PR
spike@soulwordpress.com
