"Just a short note to tell you how brave you are to share your experience with us.  It is good for the soul to know there has been at least one other who has been to the depths...and back...which is the good part. The absolute honesty in it is so rare...having read a multitude of books on grieving. A lot of them are written from 'outside' the actual experience." - H.S.

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"Thank you for extending to me the honor of reading your manuscript. As I read and further contemplated I saw many invisible connections and also visible ones.  What an incredible job you did with your book.  Kudos and Congratulations to you.  This has been your journey into the abyss to touch the very core and truth of your being.  You had no map, no visible guide but only deep loss and core grief to motivate your descent.  After I read your manuscript I read the words of John Surette, a Jesuit and found it captured my response to you.  They are "the dynamics of dying and rising, of going down into chaos with something new emerging...this is a dynamic that penetrates God's universe."  

Lady Martina, you had the courage and grit to take the leap into the depths and then emerge with a truth for your own  being and "perhaps" others on the path of loss and grief.  By this choice, you experienced the awakening of your own soul and as I read the words of your text I in turn touched the sacred in my own soul. What a gift as your invisible connections resonate and create new and  soul-filled connections for all who read your poems and deep  personal reflections.   May this be true for all!  Richard Buckminster Fuller once said "We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims."  

Thank you Martina for being an architect of the inner world of grief and loss for all who have this universal experience.  Blessings of Light and Grace," - V.B.

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"Martina offers her reader intimate insight into loss -- an experience we all face but rarely share with one another.  Tender, raw, and honest, her account is engaging: she invites her reader to visit the dark moments of grief that we too often wish away.  Martina's willingness to tend to and share her vulnerability and the strength that comes of that vulnerability will resonate with anyone who loves and who loses." – A.G.

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"Her [Martina's] memoir does not mythologize her experience.  It is frank and real.  And yet, it is also infused with the transformative power our imaginative and creative consciousness has on our life's events.  It does not lose the distinction, as some religious traditions do, between material and symbolic consciousness, but rather demonstrates how weaving these stands delicately, one over the other, can make up the resplendent tapestry of the fullness of our understanding.

What you take from your encounter with Martina's inner journey is apt to be different from my experience.  For me, what she says is powerful - yes - but I am more focussed on the how and why of what she does.  And that is honour and care for her soul; honour and accept her experience for the truth of what it is, no matter how painful; honour her relationships and life events by investing them with a value and a meaning that is singular and honest; and finally, question her faith, and all that has ever sustained her, even unto willingness to lose her life, in order to find it."  – Graham Brown (Read on here for more or Graham's reflections)

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"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you," says St. Thomas the Gnostic.  In this book, Martina Steiger brings firth her experience of death and loss in all its rawness and despair, and allows us to journey with her through her journaling and poetry to wholeness and spirit.  This is a gift of grace - freely given, not always easily comprehended, but steadfast and healing." - Ann Osborne, ThD, BSc

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"I've read the Invitation section and a couple journal entries and poems; the first two entries and an entry from near the end. I like your writing style and I find you make a very convincing pitch in the introduction. It definitely makes me curious to know what the author, you, experienced on the journey and to see how I might understand it, not having experienced the loss of someone so close. Already, however, it speaks to what I've felt at the loss of grandparents, though the intensity is not comparable. I think maybe I haven't talked about their losses enough. It is always comforting to share a troubling experience with someone; you book can provide a degree of that to the reader. Also, at this point in my life, more specifically at this point in my parents' life, I have contemplated how I might experience the loss of a parent. It is inevitable that we all loose someone very close. So I do feel drawn to read on so I might see a bit into the future, know what might be in store for me, such that I might feel less alone, and be less surprised by my reactions, when the time comes. And, if I were currently coping with a similar kind of loss, I'm sure I'd be very curious to know if my experience were similar to yours; I would find myself compelled to read on for that reason. I'm also curious to know how your experience of loss might map onto other kinds of traumatic experiences, and will read on for that reason also.

P.S. It is an engaging read. Now that I've got started, it is hard to stop for the night (it's almost 11:30)." - I.G.

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"Invisible Connections" is a truly amazing write - what a journey you have shared with all of us.  Two messages that have kept resounding thru my reading was "Door of Understanding" and "window of BEing w/grief" - just a couple of the gifts your book presents to all that read it.  It gives the individual a true vision of what may appear, look and feel as one thing, but in reality is an ever expanding basket of opportunities.  A very true message is given of just allowing yourself to BE in the moment (whether the moment be angry, ugly, joyful, sad or whatever) just BE, allow, experience, and know that it is a part of the journey.

Your words, poems, etc. say a lot, but what says more to me is your willingness to share this very sacred, insightful and tender part of your journey with the world." - M.M.

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"Invisible Connections is a gift to all of us, especially those who know grief intimately.  This work is visceral, courageous, raw, powerful and real. Martina holds nothing back and you are gratefully stunned by the powerful descriptions of her loss -   loss of her husband, loss of herself, her faith, her physical senses, her way. You intuitively know that the suffering, questing, questioning and battling is the truth of real love lost and the paradoxes contained within. It will comfort anyone who has known such loss simply because of its vulnerability and courage to speak from the heart. This is a powerful journey and metamorphosis of the body, heart and spirit mapped for us in secret but bravely displayed for our healing.  Many will recognize their own questions and will be calmed in the hope, spiritual synchronicity and peace that she affirms.  Thy will be done.  Amen." -Bethany Eaton, BA, BEd, Interior Design Consultant, Bethany's Interiors

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"And so, once again, Martina, I find myself thanking you.  Thank you for sharing your experience through your book so that we can learn to sit with others dealing with a death of a loved one.  Your ability to express such deep heartfelt emotions through your journal entries and, especially through your poetry, opened my heart.  I believe your book will also prove to be a companion to those who are now walking through their own dark night of the soul, giving them permission to express the myriad of emotions emerging at such a time.  It is my personal philosophy that those who travel to their depths are capable of higher summits.  You, Martina, are a mountain climber!

As I was reading Invisible Connections, I became more and more uncomfortable with the depths of emotions which were being stirred within me. But, as I continued, I became aware that I was walking beside you as you shared your sadness, despair, fear, confusion and the many unanswered questions.  You were giving me a gift - the gift of compassion.  Through your words, you taught me how to be a companion to those who have walked this same journey." - Karla Giminez, ThM (Read on here for more of Karla's reflections)

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"Martina's manuscript, Invisible Connections: Living the Paradoxes of Loss, details the raw emotion of fresh grief. Writing journal entries and coupling them with her poetry during the new-born stages of her grief presents readers with a perspective not often depicted in conventional offerings written after-the-fact and looking back. Martina illuminates with stark veracity her personal journey of a tragic loss. The poetry is made much more poignant by the accompanying journal entries. Some of the book is almost too painful to read, and those are the parts that ring truest to the unmitigated sorrow one experiences after a great loss.

The poems and complementary writings are an equally appropriate read for those who are in the early stages of grief as well as those who are a few months or years out. The naked beauty inherent in her work makes this collection a jewel for all who grieve." - Liz Donnelly, ThM

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"Miraculous work, dear Martina.  Miraculous healing work.  Thank you!  And on behalf of those who grieve, and those who will grieve,  and for when I grieve, I thank you.  As I concluded my reading, I experienced a feeling of awe and "Thy will is done." Thank you for your courage to share your inner journey with me.  This book is for all to read so that they can choose to really live NOW!" - Karin Cremasco, ThD, PhD, Developer of Body Harmonization and Self-Harmonization

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"Clearly, your healing and rebirthing from the event of Paul's death, and the ensuing life altering changes to your everyday reality, have realigned you to a more refined sense of your purpose.  I resonated with so many facets of your pain and immersion in the abyss, a place that just seems to swallow us without compromise.  As I read, your pain and questioning and just utter disbelief that God could take your life from you like this really brought forth the resonance of my own experiences that were catalytic transformations in my soul's journey.  I thought, if I feel this when I read your work, then there will likely be a collective sigh from others as well when they read.  

What really struck me that was so distinctly similar to my process in these last 10 years was your questioning of God and the deafening silence as an answer.  That is such a profoundly difficult place to be in day after day and I loved reading how that process unfolded into a more acute awareness of God, and Paul's, presence in your life.  That message will have a deep impact for those who are in the throes of experiencing loss in whatever form is pertinent to their reality.  Loss, whether it is through death of a loved one, divorce or an internal reorientation to life as you have known it, takes us to a place that is so raw and unfamiliar we have no choice but to die to ourselves.  You present that rite of passage in an eloquent, honest, humbling, and passionate plea to God to answer the one question all of humanity has along the path to personal revelation, WHY?  Who hasn't, or won't at some point, demand an answer from God to that question.  

Your personal story gives insight into the deep well of emotion and grief that is so dark and personal we rarely talk about it.  By revealing yourself, this book is a gift of hope to those who are stranded in the darkness.  I feel it will also serve as a beacon of light to help others find their way back to solid ground and offer a sense of knowing that they can, and will, survive." Liz Gunn

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      "I am honoured that you would share your manuscript with me. I started reading it when it arrived, and couldn't put it down.  I could have written it, as far as how you were feeling goes!  I read, and read....You wrote so many words that describe exactly how I have felt, but was afraid to put it down on paper. I thought I was the only one who felt those feelings!  

You are one courageous woman, not to mention your great writing talent.

...I believe this  manuscript, when it becomes a book, will be a tremendous help to countless people who, like both you and I, have experienced, and lost, a great love." - C.S.

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"Your manuscript is one of the most healing and soul-stirring pieces I have read.  I experienced aspects of the past six years, since C's death, in ways I had not previously known or been able to touch.  I have found myself honoring the experiences, the memories, the emptiness.  I am now allowing my heart to release the emotions that were once comforting and now are simply a form of bondage to the past.  One cannot recreate 'what was'.  We can only create what is meant to be in this moment through the lens of fresh eyes enriched by our journey thus far.  Your manuscript has been a phenomenal gift to me.

I trust each individual who reads this beautiful, soul-stirring book will be blessed by the reflection of one traveler to another as they continue or perhaps embark upon their own personal journey of healing and hope in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Through your willingness and courage to share your intimate and profoundly personal journey you have truly accomplished your desire reflected in the last sentence of your manuscript: "I trust and hope that Invisible Connections: Living the Paradoxes of Loss can transcend the boundaries of personal encounters and provide us all with the opportunity to remember once more our common and shared experiences in the cycles of life, death, and rebirth that connect us all." - Jan Howard   

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"I had a chance to just glance over your manuscript and really appreciated the honesty and the eloquent way in which you describe a very personal and human experience.   As I was reading some of it, I could think of so many people who would love to read the words that describe their feelings.  Your poetry has a trueness that speaks to the heart and your journal takes me to the paths you walked." - D.M.

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