Second Edition
Blessing the Bridge: What Animals Teach Us About Death, Dying, and Beyond
Rita M. Reynolds
When Rita Reynolds first wrote Blessing the Bridge, she had been working with sick and dying animals for more than thirty years, learning through experience how to ease their pain and fear. Just as Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross pioneered a deeper understanding of death and dying for humans, Reynolds does similarly for dying animals, both domesticated and wild.
Blessing the Bridge goes beyond the advice of most grief books for pet owners. Reynolds’ compassionate approach allows for a much deeper understanding of our connection to animals and to all of life. Her non–secular spiritual perspective for viewing death and its blessings, as well as afterlife, is refreshing and comforting. She also offers practical suggestions for staying close to an animal during the transition into death and beyond. This book includes many inspirational stories of Reynolds’ work with animals.
The second edition of Blessing the Bridge was released in January 2011, ten years after the publication of the first edition. Over the years, the wisdom, compassion, and moving stories presented in this book have comforted thousands of readers grieving the death of a beloved companion animal. Includes prayers and blessings for the animals.Blessing the Bridge has been translated into Italian, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, and Japanese.
There is a land of the living and
a land of the dead
and the bridge is love
the only survival, the only meaning.
—Thornton Wilder
Praise
This book offers a profound entrance into the mystery of those two gleaming eyes before you. A must read for all animal lovers. A healing book.
People seem to dread awarding human attributes to our fellow animals. In fact, as Blessing the Bridge so warmly and wisely shows, animals and humans share the ultimate experience—we all die. This book softens the sting of that, and shows how to ease the way for our animal friends.
Blessing the Bridge is heartwarming and thought-provoking, but always marked by an unshakeable assurance that th nd of life can be faced without fear. Rita Reynolds has learned that animals, who always seem to live closest to the marrow of existence, can teach us to accept death as an opening for love and wonder.
Blessing the Bridge is head and shoulders above all the other books now out on pet loss. With great respect and insight, Rita leads us across the bridge between the worlds and never for a moment lets us forget that the real heart of this journey is its deeply spiritual center. Although we face this bridge with our animal companions, the message Rita Reynolds conveys about love and loss is universal. It is a message that will fortify us for every other loss in our life—be it an animal companion, a relationship, a job or a dream.
What separates Rita Reynolds from other authors who write about caring for sick and dying animals is her willingness to take the process into a more intuitive and spiritual realm.[Symbol] Like The Tibetan Book of the Dead, this book has functional appeal and spiritual longevity. Reynolds shows us how to ritualize and soothe animals’ deaths, while also offering us abiding wisdom about life on earth.
About The Author
Rita Reynolds is Founder of the Animals’ Peace Garden, is tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where it has been a place of sanctuary for countless animals, birds, insects, plants and trees since 1978. The philosophy of the Peace Garden rests in the ethos of Dr. Albert Schweitzer whose Reverence For Life included every being’s will to live and to thrive. And in the tradition of Native American and Celtic philosophies, everything deserves honor and respect, from humans to stones, creatures to plants, oceans to wind. She has been rescuing and tending to creatures since she was a child.
Reynolds also edits and publishes the quarterly journal, laJoie The Journal in Appreciation of All Animals, first published in 1990 and distributed internationally. She is also the author of Ask the Cow, A Gentle Guide to Finding Peace.
In addition to her animal family, Reynolds has two grown sons who share their mother’s love and compassion for all species. Michael is Chief Garden Designer and Engineer for the Peace Garden. The author’s web site is: www.blessingthebridge.com
