Can You Just Sit with Me? - by Natasha Smith (Paperback)

Can You Just Sit With Me? by Natasha Smith A Book Review by Emily Shanahan Natasha Smith is a self-described “grief advocate, author, speaker, podcaster, and content creative.” Please, feel free to meet Tasha at her website, listen to her podcast, and follow her on Instagram and Facebook. On August 15, 2023, I woke up to an email from Natasha inviting me to join her launch team for Can You Just Sit With Me? Thank you, Natasha, for the invite as I feel as though we have become friends with each other through this launch team. Little did I know (but Jesus knew!) when I was accepted to this launch team that I would send my thirteen-year-old Shih-Tzu, Willie Shanahan, home to Jesus due to early onset dementia, cardiac issues, and allergies. This book, beautifully written by Natasha, was such a gift from Jesus as I mourned the loss of my little buddy. I truly admire Natasha’s spiritual maturity, bravery, honesty, and vulnerability anchored in Christ’s strength. She opens this book by sharing four very personal and intimate losses in her life as a launching point to discussing Biblical, healthy grieving. The two losses described in the book which stood out to me the most were the loss of Natasha’s father, due to cancer, and her nephew, due to an unexpected, sudden tragedy. My heart ached with Natasha when she described the sudden pit in her stomach when informed by a nurse that her father had passed peacefully. My eyes welled with tears when Natasha described with aching detail the shock that struck when her nephew was suddenly taken from them. The first point in Natasha’s book that stood out to me was that grief is an uncomfortable experience that American culture likes to minimize and hurry past. Natasha did not encourage her readers to wallow in their grief but rather to acknowledge the full depth and extent of their loss, giving themselves the needed time and resources to grieve. Natasha pointed out that grief is cyclical and that some grieving periods are shorter or longer than others. Natasha also explained that grief is not only limited to the loss of a life. Grief can also be extended to the loss of relationship, the loss of a defining attribute in someone’s life where value was derived from, such as a job, or the loss of an expectation (expecting a typically developed child and instead a differently enabled little one is born). One of the most helpful features for me about this book was that each chapter ends with a “Grief Exercise.” The Grief Exercise which was most challenging to me was the opportunity to write a lament in the style of a biblical lament in order to help you process, mourn, and talk about your grief with God. In verse style, I was able to tell Jesus what I loved the most about Willie, what I missed the most about him, ending with how I felt about losing Willie and how that loss impacted my life. As simple as it may sound, the process of sharing with the Lord my lament for Willie started to blunt the sharp edge of his loss and empowered me to process it better. One thought I want to leave you with is all of Natasha Smith’s main points are undergirded by Scripture, as her book promoted healthy, biblical grieving. If you want to gain more tools in your grieving process, I recommend you order this book by clicking on this link. I was provided with an advance copy of Can You Just Sit With Me? to review as part of a launch team. My opinions are my own and I was not financially compensated in any way.