The Grief Forest
a book about what we don’t talk about
written & illustrated by Laraine Herring, MFA, MA
Available for purchase now!
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What if we learned to relate to grief differently?
Join Bunny after the death of her father on her 122-page, full color journey into the Grief Forest.
Along the way, she meets many animals who are experiencing various types of grief.
Each animal she meets gives her a clue to understanding her own grief process.
What if grief contained a gift that could only be accessed by allowing the grief to be expressed?
And what if that grief-gift helped not only the griever, but the whole world?
When Bunny's father dies, she captures her grief in a bubble the color of his soul. She carries this grief with her, afraid that if she lets it go, she will lose her daddy. Bunny's grief leads her to The Grief Forest and Grandmother Bunny, who meets her at the Forest's edge. Bunny is afraid of all the grief she sees there, so she runs away and meets Death, who guides her deeper into the Forest. Each animal she meets expresses an aspect of grief. As Bunny's grief begins to take on a life of its own, she becomes desperate to hold onto it, afraid of who she would be without it. She falls deeper into the Forest, meeting creatures of the sea and creatures of the night. When she meets Cobra, everything she thought she knew about grief falls away and she has to make a choice: hold on to a life that has gone, or learn how to be alive in a new environment.
For all ages, The Grief Forest is a journey through complicated grieving-showing examples of delayed grief, absent grief, PTSD, attachment, disenfranchised grief and many more. Bereavement is a place. When we grieve, we enter this mysterious world and we do not leave it unchanged. And by meeting our grief, sitting quietly with it and listening to it, we can access its deeper wisdom, helping to heal not only the griever, but the whole world.
“Laraine’s gifts are deep and rich, and will reach more people than she can imagine. The combination of connections and personalities in the Forest and in her words are more than lightning in a bottle; they are enlightenment in the heart.” - Sally Miller, PhD, author of Mourning and Dancing: A Memoir of Grief and Recovery.
“Laraine Herring is a gracious and powerful soul who has traveled the paths of the grief forest well. With her extraordinary powers of story-truth-telling, she guides us through the hidden forest of grief like no other can. Each sentence is a deep well of insight and healing. This is a book to ponder and savor and return to time and again.” — Dalena Watson, LPC, FAMI, MT-BC
Bunny Captures Grief in a Bubble the Color of Her Daddy’s Soul
image 1 in The Grief Forest
Robin.
Bunny meets Robin in Act 1. Robin tells Bunny that her egg didn’t hatch.
This image represents disenfranchised grief, which is grief that is not recognized by the culture. Examples include miscarriages, loss of limbs, organ donations, and loss of dreams.
There’s no telling what magic you can find on a journey into your own Grief Forest!
Sign up below for a FREE 33-page full color personal journey (with Bunny and friends, of course!) into your Grief Forest.
As a bonus, it contains helpful grief terminology and some easy-to-digest grief theory to help you make sense of your feelings.
Make your own grief balloons with Bunny now!
