A Need for Living: Signposts on the Journey of Life and Beyond

Everyone has a need for meaning in life. For most of us, it is only when we are facing a life crisis, or the loss of a loved one, or the reality of our own death that the search for meaning becomes real. How then do we express what really matters?

Facing this in his work as a hospice chaplain, Tom Gordon has often found that explanations sound trite and shallow, and even traditional beliefs can be found wanting. So, to help him understand and respond to people's search for meaning , he has come to use word pictures, imaginative concepts into which they can be drawn, and which can articulate their feelings better than words.

This book contains a series of these images, woven together with some stories of people with whom they have been used. It is a book for people facing a life crisis and for those who care for the dying. Ultimately it is a book for everyone, especially for whom traditional words and symbols have failed, and who need new images to help them live again.