Wild Things by Roberta C. Bondi

“Grief is such a messy thing,” Roberta Bondi writes in the introduction. “It fills us with many ideas and images, memories and fantasies, celebration and bitter regret all at once — all superimposed upon one another. No wonder it wears us out.”

In this book of poetry and reflections on her mother’s death, Bondi acknowledges her grief in the presence of God over the span of a few months. She expresses many conflicting feelings: love, pain, anger, guilt, emptiness, confusion, exhaustion, relief that her mother was no longer suffering. As she celebrates her mother’s life and wrestles with her own sense of loss and longing, she ponders the mystery of life, death, and God’s presence every day all around us in nature as well as in relationships.

Even though we may feel isolated in our grief, we do not grieve alone, Bondi reminds us. In this firsthand account of her grief, she offers a gift to all who are grieving — comfort and help with accepting the forward and backward movements of grief and loss.

Wild Things will also be a valuable resource for those seeking to aid and comfort the grieving: pastors, counselors, chaplains, hospice workers, and family and friends of those dealing with loss.