The Long Night: Readings and Stories to Help You through Depression, is for those who are struggling with depression, or who love someone who is.
You’ve done what you can: You’ve seen your doctor, made an appointment with a therapist, picked up the prescription for the antidepressant and swallowed that first strange pill. But it can take four to eight weeks for the meds to start to work, and it might take two or more tries before you and your doctor find the ones that work best for you. When you’re in the midst of terrible depression, those weeks can feel like an eternity. You just want to feel better NOW. This book is for those who are in the long night of waiting. It does not promise healing or deliverance, it is not a guide to praying away the depression. It is just an attempt to sit next to you while you wait, to let you know that you are not alone, that this time will not last forever.
Blessings for the Long Night: Poems and Meditations to Help You through Depression is a collection of poems and short prose pieces, building on the themes from The Long Night. I use the seasons autumn, winter, and spring, both as another metaphor for the long night of depression, and as the reality of nature, shifting seasons that we, as human beings are a part of and connected to. My vision for The Long Night and Blessings for the Long Night is to walk alongside others who are going through depression, by sharing some of my own experience as well as excerpts from the authors who helped me. I want my readers to find in these books a friend who understands, supports, and advocates for them.
365 Days of Peace: Benedictions to End Your Day in Gentleness and Hope is a collection of the short poems/blessings I posted on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram every evening for a year.
“By the end of the day we’re often exhausted, worn down by meeting other’s needs and our own, frustrated by things that happened today, and anxious about what’s going to happen tomorrow. In 365 Days of Peace, writer and theologian Jessica Kantrowitz offers a moment of peace for that transition into the evening. In each of these short benedictions, first posted on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, she identifies struggles common to us all yet specific enough that some readers have wondered if she was reading their journals. She then speaks peace over them and over us, offering blessings that are pastoral but also inclusive, accessible for people of any faith, or of none. Light a candle, make a cup of tea, and settle into the evening with this book, in gentleness, hope, and peace.”
Every morning is a chance to start again, with renewed energy and hope. But often we wake up still carrying the pain, stress, and exhaustion of the prior days, weeks, or even years. In Good Morning, Friends: Gentle Suggestions for the Start of Your Day, Jessica Kantrowitz offers us gentle words of re-centering, reframing, and release. Grab a cup of coffee and settle into the day with this book, in peace and hope.
“In many ways, it’s quite easy to talk about concepts like gentleness and self-compassion–but Jessica Kantrowitz helps us embody it in our daily, ordinary lives. I loved this little book. The many invitations, prompts, and poetry felt like a compassionate friend joining me along my own journey. I’m so grateful for this kind resource.”
~Aundi Kolber, MA, LPC, Therapist and author of Try Softer, The Try Softer Guided Journey, and Strong like Water
Open Things is the latest collection of poetry from Jessica Kantrowitz. Both grounded and ethereal, these poems fearlessly explore themes of despair and hope, confinement and release, struggle and emergence, expressing the tremendous joy and freedom of openness as vividly as the pain and longing of wanting what is closed. Kantrowitz is that rare breed of poet who is accessible without sacrificing depth and craft.
“The humanity stretches wide and runs deep through Kantrowitz’s new collection as the poet pushes past unknowing to celebration; honors the late Sinead O’Connor by naming just a few of the many, many forms of art; tries to turn a Mark Twain notion into a sustainable diet; and makes daily bread from poems. Kantrowitz’s forever gift is allowing readers to feel seen and understood in her verses.”
-Aarik Danielsen
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