With 143 short reflections, The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart reaches readers enduring loss — and the professionals who support them.
Few human experiences are as universal — yet as profoundly lonely — as grief. The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart, the follow‑up volume in Spike Humer’s meditation series from SoulWord Press, offers a daily presence for those navigating loss.
The project grew from a prayer offered to one family. In 2025, close friends of Humer and his wife, Michele, lost their son, Josh. “There is no language adequate for a loss like that,” Humer says. “No framework. No fix. There is only presence — the willingness to sit beside someone in their sorrow. I knew the only thing I could offer was what I know how to give: words. Not answers. Not repair.”
Josh’s name appears openly throughout the book. Wherever readers encounter it, they are invited to substitute the name of their own loved one.
The volume comprises 143 meditations, each on its own page, crafted to fit the brief span of attention that grief typically allows. It follows three recurring themes: What I’m Carrying — the weight of grief and the love held inside it; What I’m Noticing — the unexpected graces that appear nonetheless; and What I’m Returning To — the gradual process of reconnecting with oneself. The book offers no timeline and presents no stages to complete.
An excerpt:
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.
The meditations are intended for those mourning a spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, or animal companion, as well as for people grieving losses that lack a funeral — a marriage, a career, the decline of one’s health, a lifelong hope. The book is also being distributed to hospice programs, chaplains, grief counselors, and recovery communities.
The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart is offered 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 use is in development.
ABOUT SOULWORD PRESS
SoulWord Press is an independent publisher dedicated to contemplative works on presence, becoming, and the inner life. Its catalog includes 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
