Meet Bob McGuire

Writing had always come naturally to Bob, but only as a personal and therapeutic hobby—journaling to process his thoughts and feelings. His shift in perspective on writing occurred when the extreme pressures of his grief experience cracked open this lifelong practice into a more focused endeavor, resulting in this book.

Through his insightful writing, Bob McGuire takes the reader on his pilgrimage through intense grief into new life, love, and faith—from the physical world to the inner emotional dimension, and to the often camouflaged spiritual realm.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1956, he lived in Michigan and New York before his family moved to California in 1968. He graduated from a California university in 1980 and went on to careers in the fields of energy production and information technology.

Since childhood, he felt a connection with nature and the outdoors, so when grief invaded his life at 60 years old, he had a calling, a pull, to walk the Camino de Santiago—a pilgrimage that served as one of the vital aspects of a multifaceted healing process.

Writing had always come naturally to Bob, but only as a personal and therapeutic hobby—journaling to process his thoughts and feelings. However, the extreme pressures of his grief experience cracked open this lifelong practice into a more focused endeavor that resulted in this book. In doing so, he hopes that his own story will be helpful to those who find themselves faced with a similar struggle.

But writing something personal for others to read presented an internal conflict. At a young age he learned from his father to keep his feelings inside and to never “wear them on your sleeve.” However, it was also his father who raved about a short school essay Bob wrote when he was 12 years old, in which he expressed his heartbreak at leaving his childhood home in upstate New York when the family moved cross-country to the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the years that followed, his father would bring up the essay and how it touched him.

Bob’s grief experience also pushed every boundary of his deeply held religious and spiritual beliefs. Raised in a Christian home within the belief system of the Catholic church, Bob remained a faithful follower his entire life. Whenever challenges arose, no matter how difficult, his spiritual foundation led him to seek out guidance and direction within his Christian-Catholic faith.

But when tragedy ultimately struck, it brought him face-to-face with a crisis of faith in which he questioned everything he believed. How could drug addiction, life-threatening illness, and death be allowed to enter and destroy a happy family life, despite all the prayer and devotion that were supposed to provide protection and deliverance? How could God be so absent? How could God allow these things to happen?

Perseverance and a sense of openness provided the compass that directed him toward a new season of spiritual growth. A spiritual reset occurred, unfolding in his life in unexpected ways, but always contained within the realm of God’s love.

Bob’s self-motivation and dedication to lifelong learning and personal development, spanning multiple facets of his life—work and career, and mental, physical, and spiritual health—equipped him with a determination to work through his grief and learn everything he could from it. Ultimately, this led to his personal growth, one of the most profound aspects of his healing process.