Overview

Sometimes we need a story more than food. That is never more true than during our dying time, or when we're taking care of people we love. A few months before she passed away, the author's mother-in-law asked her: ""What do you think happens after you die""? In response, Cindy Spring shared stories from three different traditions. Sylvia chose the old Hindu tale - the wave and the drop -- as the one that carried her through her final days. The Wave and The Drop is a small book of stories that help us consider the mystery of life and death, and start conversations about life's ultimate questions. The Foreword was written by Dr. Charles Garfield, internationally recognized for over 40 years as a leader and teacher in the field of death and dying. Each chapter draws from a different tradition and addresses two essential questions: What happens when you die? What happens after you die? The Wave and The Drop is a kind of Aesop's Fables for the dying time. Every tribe, religion, and culture on the planet has evolved its own stories. In this book, the sources are referred to as wisdom traditions, and their stories as wisdom stories. Some describe entering a white light, others foretell a reuniting with loved ones, or promise a new dimension such as heaven or nirvana. These are tales of joining the beloved community, dropping back into an ocean of love, and going home. They suggest that we can temper the sadness and fear that often accompany death with grace and a deep sense that there is an afterlife. Sometimes the dying person sees escorts: deceased parents, or a spouse, or angels ready to assist in the transition from life to what comes next. Alongside traditional stories about heaven, you'll find recent accounts of near-death experiences describing a personal version of heaven. In the chapter on the ancient belief in reincarnation, the reader will find several contemporary stories about children who seem able to recall past lives with amazing detail. The Story of Transformation is that moment when the drop starts falling back into the wave, a surrender to the fact that my life in this body is ending. It can mean a larger awareness of the impermanence of everything, as Buddhism suggests. Author Richard Bach captures a version in his well-known quote: ""What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."" In the Tapestry section of the book, you'll find a selection of inspiring quotes from seekers such as Rumi, Emily Dickinson, and Kahlil Gibran. There also are insights from contemporary thinkers such as psychiatrist Irvin Yalom who helps his patients move past their denial of death, and historian Arnold Toynbee who speculated on why belief in an afterlife is universal. In the Epilogue, author Cindy Spring reflects on how stories provide us with answers. They can bypass the rational mind by speaking to us in images and metaphors, like the wave and the drop. They contain universals honed over centuries by the best thinkers and practitioners within a tradition. The stories may be ""pieces of the elephant"" as described in the famous parable of the four blind men. Or fingers pointing at the moon. When we share stories with a whole community, we feel better equipped to step outside our usual death-denying world and open to a different point of view --- like the Stanford engineering professor who told his loved ones on his deathbed: ""I'm off to my next great adventure."" What do you believe will happen at your death and afterward? We, and those we love, can take these stories and shape them into a personal narrative that will help us cross that threshold. This book guides us gently by the heart as we consider our own mortality and the possibility of continued existence.

Full Product Details

9780999698907

Table of Contents

Reviews

Among the many books on death and dying that have poured into our culture in the past 30 years The Wave and The Drop is unique. In this breathtaking and profound collection of wisdom stories about death drawn from many diverse human traditions. Cindy Spring offers us the whole of human wisdom on the journey to the edge of life and beyond. Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., Author, Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessings Touching, helpful, healing and wise! These are the words that well up as I read Cindy Spring's moving gift of the world's wisdom stories that millions of people have used to guide their lives and ease their deaths. This is a book that will enrich anyone who wants to live fully and all of us who may someday die. Roger Walsh, M.D, Ph.D, Professor of psychiatry, University of California; Author, Essential Spirituality: The Seven Central Practices In my experience, what we believe about what happens after death may shape the way in which we die and even the way in which we live our lives. The Wave and The Drop engages us in a profound inquiry into this Mystery. Frank Ostaseski. Author, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully; Founder, Metta Institute Cindy Spring has harnessed the power of stories that bring solace to the soul as we face the inevitable transitions of life. Whether in the loss of a loved one or in preparation for our own inevitable death, these stories can help us befriend the great mystery of existence. Don't wait! There is something for everyone in this book. Frances Vaughan, Ph.D., Author, Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing through Spiritual Illusions. This short, easy to read, extensively researched collection of stories is itself a story. It is the story of humanity needing to make meaning out of human existence. Those looking for comfort will find it not only in the convergence of understandings of the nature of death, but in the examples of how many have faced it in ways that brought acceptance and fulfillment. Leonard Joy, Quaker Institute for the Future Board of Trustees In a short, clear and concentrated book, Cindy Spring gives us many gifts: important stories, deep quotes and poetry, insights into many spiritual traditions and many delicious, if challenging, concepts about death to consider. It's a treasure trove of heart and information, food for living and elixir for dying. Kate Munger, Founder, Threshold Choir

Author Information

Cindy Spring is an author, social activist, and explorer of the unconventional. She authored Wisdom Circles: A Guide to Self-Discovery and Community Building in Small Groups (Hyperion, 1998), and co-authored with Charles Garfield Sometimes My Heart Goes Numb: Love and Caregiving in a Time of AIDS (Jossey-Bass, 1995). She co-edited the anthology Earthlight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age (Friends Bulletin, 2007). She was also a national producer of over one hundred nonfiction audiobooks. Since the mid-1990s, she has been active in local ecology in the San Francisco area, co-founding two ecology nonprofits, EarthTeam and Close to Home: Exploring Nature in the East Bay, as well as serving as coordinator for Earth Day 2000 for the Bay Area. Her explorations have been in the fields of spirituality, transpersonal psychology, and personal growth. She lives in Northern California with her husband Charlie and two cats, Bella and Layla.

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