Close to the Bone: Lifethreatening Illness and the Search for Meaning

by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Book Overview

This is a book for any person who is living with a lifethreatening illness and for anyone who is caring for and/or loves a person who is ill. Bolen affirms that the price of going into the scary... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684835304
• ISBN13: 9780684835303
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Close to the Bone

This, unfortunately, would be a book that may only be purchased by a person who was knowledgeable about Jean Bolen or open-minded about life-threatening illnesses or crises. Care takers would benefit from this book as it would enable them to come out of themselves and understand the person with whom they are dealing. There is so much more to death and the leading up to it than people realize or are willing to acknowledge. It's not complicated. It's a beautiful journey that we all should understand better. Jean Bolen guides us there gently, but clearly.

Immensely Meaningful Book

Essential book for all whose lives are currently touched by serious illness. As a health care provider and one who has been personally affected by personal catastrophic health changes, I highly recommend CLOSE TO THE BONE. Patricia anne Dennison, Pharmacist and author of STOP THE VOICES

Accepting the challenge of the joy of living

As a businesswoman seeking to ensure that the daily demands of running a successful organization do not impede my ability to live a life of integrity, I seek to read books that inspire me to find joy in daily living. As I read this book, I was in awe of the stories of the survivors who have found life that much more as a result of their experiences in dealing with terminal illness. I applaud Dr. Bolen's wisdom in sharing the challenges that make a healthy person realize how weak we are in comparison to these heroes who live so richly in spite of events. I found the book a great joy and, in fact, am reading it again - just in case I missed something the first time. I am positioning myself to "recreate" myself in a 2nd career and this book inspired me to think of using my skills in some way to assist women who find themselves dealing with their own terminal illness or the illness of a loved one.

Danger and Opportunity

Early in this beautiful book, Jean Shinoda Bolen reminds us that the Chinese pictograph for "crisis" contains the ideograms for both "danger" and "opportunity." I've worked with clients who deal with life-threatening illness, and it is almost invariably true that this experience raises important "soul-evoking" questions. To explore those questions is inevitably healing, whether in body, spirit, or both. As with any major crisis in life, we can either view the glass as half-empty, or see the gift that we are offered: the opportunity to re-examine our priorities, our relationships, and to do the soul-work that brings true meaning to life. Illness forces us to deal with "what we know in our bones" that we may have so far denied -- ways in which we are unhappy and/or self-destructive. And those of us who do not have life-threatening illness can learn from those who do. As Bolen points out, "Life is a terminal condition, after all." So we can all benefit from answering the questions she poses: "What are we here for... What did we come to learn... What and who did we come here to love?"

Must read for anyone coming to terms with loss and mortality

Once again, Jean Shinoda Bolen has gifted us with her rich understanding of the human condition. In this book, she explores the psychological and spiritual value of death, profound loss, and illness without in any way minimizing the pain, angusih, and grief that come with these times in our loves. Bolen's book gives us a way to grapple with these passages on a deep spiritual, personal level, without turning to religious platitudes or what, for many, may feel like true-believer gloss overs. Instead, dying, illness, and loss are presented as psychological as well as physical events that resonate with rich personal and spiritual meaning and transformation, if we can allow them to do this. A wonderful book!