A place to put what you're feeling, in your own time.
111 prompts across 8 sections. No order to follow. No timeline to keep.
You don't need the right words
This gives them somewhere to put their own. It asks nothing of them, and it keeps. It works handed over in a month as well as it works today.
Some days a page, some days a line
Both count. The prompts ask very little on purpose, and none of them expect you to be doing well.
A look inside, so you know what you're choosing
Giving it as a sympathy gift
- Is it too soon, or too late?
- There's no wrong time. That's part of why there's no timeline printed inside: it works handed over at the funeral, and it works quietly left on a doorstep in month three.
- What do I write in the card?
- A short note is enough. "Thinking of you," and their name, is plenty. The book does the rest of the talking, slowly, when they're ready.
- How does it arrive?
- A hardcover on thick cream paper, made to be kept rather than filled in and thrown away. It ships from Amazon like anything else you order.
Why it's built this way
Grief doesn't move in a straight line, so this journal doesn't ask you to. There are no stages to pass and no boxes for each day, because the research on grief supports neither. The research on writing shows the benefit comes from returning in small ways rather than one big honest evening, which is why the pages are dated and carry one prompt at a time.
The prompts also avoid the things grieving people say they hate: nothing here tells you it happened for a reason, nothing calls this a journey, and nothing has a religious frame. It's a place to put things. That's the whole design.
The details
Questions people ask
- Is it religious?
- No. Nothing inside assumes a faith, and nothing rules one out. The prompts stay with your memories and your days.
- Is it only for one kind of loss?
- It's written for remembering a person you love, whoever they were to you. Editions for specific losses are on the way.
- Do they have to start it right away?
- No, and it says so inside. It's built to sit on a shelf until it's wanted, whether that takes a week or a year.
- What if writing isn't really their thing?
- The prompts ask very little on purpose. One line counts, and plenty of pages ask for less than that.
- Can I return it?
- It sells through Amazon, so Amazon's normal delivery and returns apply.
The buy buttons on this page go to Amazon. Emily J. Pearson is the author of this journal, and we say so plainly.