Little Steps: My Spiritual Journal: Coping with My Son’s Suicide

All too often, survivors of a loved one’s suicide are left behind, struggling with a loss that fosters stigma, shame, blame, guilt, and abandonment. For the survivor, these struggles last long after the funeral is over, and friends and relatives have returned to their daily lives.

Healing the loss after the suicide of a love one is about restarting your life with nothing firm to stand on. Little Steps is the guided process James Adams recorded in his journal documenting before, during, and after his son committed suicide. It starts with conversations where voices of wisdom are guiding him along a spiritual path of discovery; then, as he was confronted with his loss, those conversations shifted toward coping with and understanding the grief process.

Feeling left behind and somehow responsible, James continued to write his guided conversations as he dealt with lingering questions: Why did he do this? What should I have done differently? What could I have done differently? If only I had known … What did I do wrong?

These real-time journaled conversations capture in a loving, spiritual, and supportive way all the drama, trauma, and recovery as they occurred, making Little Steps a powerful documentary of healing from a traumatic loss.