Seasons of Solace ....

..... is a wonderful book.

It's a book about grief, but it's different. It one widow's story told through her poems and her photography. It's beautiful.

I'm not usually a person who enjoys sitting down and reading a bunch of poems.

I'm not that deep ............. shocking, I know (and shame on all of you who did a spit-take on that!).

I prefer to read an entire story.

But this book had me captivated from the first page.

Janelle Shantz Hertzler is the author. She and her husband were living in Thailand with their 18 month old son doing volunteer work in July 2005. Then one day that month, she lived through what all of us never want to live through (though many of you have) ..... the tragic death of her husband.

Janelle turned to writing and photography to help her heal. These are not your ordinary flowery, romantic poems. They are full of raw emotion and grief. They are real. I think that's why I like them so much.

That, and the fact that I "get it".

Her pictures are of nature and they are wonderful. The beauty of the pictures balances amazingly with the rawness of the poems.

I highly recommend anyone reading this book. And I'm not being paid to say that.

Nor am I being paid to say that you can find it right here.