Bøger af Joseph Hepburn

As I travel, watch television, and listen to hundreds of people in and out of hospitals in a wide range of communities, there is one major human experience that confronts us. Grief. Your own grief, the grief of friends, the grief of people you have never met, incidents of grief from major natural disasters, and from increasingly violent human interactions. Many talk therapists, available talk therapy and counselors, are involved in helping. Yet incidents of violent human aggression, deadly shootings and environmental abuse, rapidly rise. This book shows: 1.How humor played a positive role in the events and conflicts of many different religions. 2.How humor can be a form of self-care, of mindful meditation, and of grace. 3.How humor helps you cope with major loss, repeated devastations and bereavement. If you are not gifted as a stand-up comedian, this book is especially for you! Joseph McD Hepburn BA(Theol.), MA, MPhil, DTh, ACC. Joseph Hepburn is a retired Minister of Religion, after which he has served as a certified Hospital Chaplain for the past thirteen years. His hobbies include astronomy (yes there is humor in the skies too!), reading delightful and humorous narratives and biographies, and walking. Joseph earned a BA degree in Theology in Jamaica, with his project on the The Religious Implications of Humor in West Indian Society, a Master's degree in Ethics from Drew University, and a Doctoral degree in Clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy, with a dissertation on Humor as a tool in Collective and Cumulative Grief. After two marriages, two children, two grandchildren and two retirements, Joseph now serves as a per diem Chaplain in Hollywood, USA.

This book reveals what it means to have a belief system. Even though you may not remember the sermon, or message or lecture, something subconsciously settles into our psyche to stimulate reflection, the 'aha' moment or just a smile. The smile however should not be overlooked. It unites our past with the events of the present and the synthesis symbolizes that there is now a conscious realization that life has meaning. So 'holding on to the broken pieces' takes us to shore. What we used to struggle with is still a focus of some struggle, but we can see clearer now. This book shows that in the midst of the storms of life, we can still find ways to express ourselves and respond with humor. Humor gives us the psychic space and presence of mind to retreat and take stock, but always to go forward, to carry on with renewed hope. Laughter cures many ills both physical and spiritual. God laughs, sometimes at us, but I believe mostly with us. The Supreme Being is 'a-listening all night long' and therefore sometimes help comes from the least suspected places and persons: like the boy who was marginalized because he could not swim or even float, yet became the one who saved two of his friends from drowning! We become motivated to help by stories that bring insight and fresh vision to the sufferer; by the ability to confront our mortality with irony and jest, as in the humorous "Tombstones" mentioned, and the suggested themes for guidance and survival that emanate therefrom. I present much of the book in conversational style, with some Caribbean slangs, to stimulate your own reflections, smiles or laughter. Enjoy it nuh!