Susannah Conway experienced deep loss when her partner died suddenly of a heart attack in the early years of their lives together.

This I Know is Susannah’s story of her journey through her grief.

“Our relationship ended in the middle of the conversation, and there was still so much to say.”

It’s different from any book I’ve read about grief and Susannah tells it in such a way that you feel as though she is your dear friend. You want to sit with her in silence and be there for her. You want to listen to her talk about loss and how it feels. Absorb her pain. Take it away.

Conway is not afraid to talk about the raw feelings that came after experiencing the death of her partner. She shares her most intimate secrets and thoughts about her life, her body and relationships. She shares what she wished could have been different. What she wished she could tell her partner now.

It’s also an uplifting story that provides hope. Susannah emerges from her loss with a renewed sense of self. She calls it her unraveling. And, it’s this unraveling that allows her to begin life anew. She finds a new way to live and share her gifts with others.

Susannah credits three things that she believes were integral to her surviving this loss.

The first is finding a doctor and asking for help in the form of therapy and anti-depressants. The second is starting her blog. The third is buying a digital camera. If you look at these three things at a high level, it’s really about healing through expression and connection.

“Sometimes I’m a writer who writes with a camera. Sometimes I’m a photographer who shoots with words.”

Susannah was able to express her pain and work through grief by speaking to her therapist, writing about her experiences, connecting with the community she created on her blog and taking pictures that allowed her to capture her feelings, thoughts and dreams.

Her grieving process, her unraveling, was such a healing and meaningful journey that it has become part of her life purpose. Susannah shares this process with others through her incredibly creative e-courses that allow women to unravel by express themselves using photography and connecting with the other women in the e-course community.

This I Know is not just a book for those who are grieving or have experienced loss. It’s a book for anyone that is interested in exploring emotions, learning about self-expression and discovering who they really are.

Miri McDonald works in strategic communications and a yogini on and off the mat. She earned her 200 hour teaching certification in 2005 from Tranquil Space Yoga in Washington, DC. Miri lives in Madison, WI where she is doing her best to live in the moment, learning from her favorite gurus, her two young boys and a crazy black Labrador. She tweets at@mirimcdonald.

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Ed: Lynn H.

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