Understanding Grief With Expert Guidance

Grief is a natural part of life. When we experience any kind of loss, there are emotions and feelings that we experience. In the past, it was believed that there were stages of grief that one must traverse. However, research has revealed that the real science of learning to come to terms with grief is the ability to understand, express, and live the various emotions and feelings associated with grief. The book, "Finding Aloha in Grief" covers many different aspects of grief while focusing on the importance of feelings. It is my memoir of being a pastor, chaplain, and T'ai-Chi Sifu (teacher of this Chinese martial art).

My experience includes being a pastor of several churches that were located in Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington, and various cities in Hawaii (Nu'uanu, Waipahu, Honolulu, and Kailua) is explored in this book in relation to grief.

For 7 years, I served as a volunteer chaplain with the Inter-Disciplinary Oncology Team at the Kuakini Medical Center in Honolulu. The team comprised doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains of different faith traditions that met weekly, and then visits were made to patients on the 5th (Oncology) Floor of the hospital.

For 2 years, I served as a chaplain with Hospice Hawaii (now known as Navian Hawaii providing care for every life journey) I made visits to patients located on the island of Oahu and charted each visit which was covered by Medicare. A weekly staff meeting with other chaplains also included the hospice team of doctors, nurses, social workers, and occasionally a massage therapist and a musician, both of whom also made visits to patients.