Christine Thiele

Christine Thiele is a free lance writer, middle school teacher, and a former professional and volunteer youth minister. She has written for The Journal of Student Ministries, YouthWorker Journal, Grief Digest, OpentoHope.com, is a contributing author in several Open to Hope books and The Widow's Handbook (to be released in 2014 by Kent State University Press). Along with her writing, Christine is raising her two lovely and energetic sons. Since her husband's death in 2005 from pancreas cancer, her writing has been focused on grief and healing issues.

Articles:

After Husband’s Death, Dreams Must be Reinvented

Dreams Die with Your Spouse One of the hardest struggles I’ve found about widowhood is that the life you had before pretty much dies with your spouse. Well, at least […]

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After Eight Years, It’s Getting Better at the Holidays

Thanksgiving is here. I am grateful for many, many things. Every day I count my blessings…really. My life is pretty, dang good most days. Sure I have struggles and challenges, […]

Open to hope

Missing my Husband, Missing my Champion

When Eat, Pray, Love released years back, I read it. I enjoyed it and I even read Liz Gilbert’s sequel to it and enjoyed it too. When the movie came […]

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Hiccups: During Grief, We Really Feel Them

Since the end of last month, my world has been in a state of flux. Those last few weeks of July, I was feeling impatient, edgy, and frustrated. I didn’t […]

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An Insulated Heart: Feeling For Oklahoma Victims

Right after I was widowed, my heart was raw. It was wide open, exposed, and vulnerable to all and any heartache that I saw and heard. It didn’t matter if […]

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Oklahoma Tornadoes: Even in Tragedy, the Power of Good over Evil

I was a youth minister when the Columbine school shooting occurred many years ago. It was my first experience with public tragedy that affected youth directly during my professional ministry. […]

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From ‘the Darkest Place,’ Discovery

I think one of the strangest places that my journey of widowhood has taken me is this place of discovery. Discovery brought forth by the need to survive. This new […]

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A Widow Ponders Beginnings, Endings, and Middles

We all have gifts and challenges. Some of us are better at beginnings, some better at middles and some are better at the end. I am better at middles. I […]

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Still Unsettled, Years After Husband’s Death

Years ago, I thought I’d be settled by now. I thought I’d have found my way. I thought, well, I thought. I imagined. I had no idea how life would […]

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Thanks to the Men who Help Kids After Father Loss

When my husband died, I knew it would be important to my boys to have men around and in their lives. Since they would no longer have their trail guide, […]

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