The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart features 143 short reflections intended for those facing loss and the professionals supporting them.
Grief stands as one of humanity’s most shared experiences, yet it can feel profoundly solitary. The Gift of This Day: Meditations for the Grieving Heart, the follow-up volume in Spike Humer’s meditation series from SoulWord Press, provides a daily presence for individuals navigating sorrow.
The project started as a prayer directed at a single household. In 2025, friends of Humer and his wife, Michele, experienced the death of their son, Josh. “Words fail in the face of such a tragedy,” Humer remarks. “There is no structure. No solution. Only presence—the readiness to stay close to someone in their pain. I realized the sole thing I could offer was what I know how to create: words. Not explanations. Not fixes.”
Josh’s name is intentionally kept within the text. Readers are encouraged to insert the name of their own loved one wherever they see his.
The volume includes 143 meditations, each on a single page, crafted to fit the brief span of focus that grief typically allows. It follows three recurring themes: What I’m Carrying, the burden of grief and the affection contained within it; What I’m Noticing, the surprising moments of grace that appear regardless; and What I’m Returning To, the gradual process of reconnecting with oneself. The book avoids making promises about timeframes and does not propose a checklist of stages.
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 reflections are designed for readers mourning a spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, or animal companion, and also for those grieving losses that come without a ceremony—a marriage, a career, a decline in health, a long-held aspiration. The publication is also being provided to hospice organizations, chaplains, grief therapists, and recovery groups.
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 bookstores and libraries. A facilitator’s guide for group and institutional use is in development.
ABOUT SOULWORD PRESS
SoulWord Press is an independent publisher that focuses on contemplative works about presence, growth, and the inner life. Its offerings include the I Am Becoming journal series and The Gift of This Day meditation series. Find out more at SoulWordPress.com.
For review copies, interview requests, or further details, please contact:
Spike Humer
BrightKey PR
spike@soulwordpress.com
