MOON TO PLAY WITH is Released

By: Christina Mancuso Jun. 18, 2015

MERRICK, N.Y.

"With 76 million baby boomers and more than 40 million seniors, it is now imperative for everyone to have conscious end-of-life conversations with their aging parents and family," says author Wendy Karasin.

Karasin's new book, "The Moon to Play With: A Daughter's Journey Through Love, Loss, & the Power of Presence" (published by Balboa Press), is a memoir of the author's own loss of both parents within a three-month period. Her experiences and her journey bring readers closer to understanding the connection between life and death, and reveal how, as she writes, "staying present to someone at the end of their life can change the way you live the rest of yours." Today, millions of people born in the baby boomer years of 1946 to 1964 are facing the same challenges with their elderly parents, many of whom have terminal illnesses and require palliative and ultimately hospice care.

Karasin's story looks deeply into the relationships, love, loss and renewal in her life as she resists, then embraces, her parents' aging and their eventual deaths. Through an examination of her imperfect but close relationships, Karasin universalizes her own experience to share insights on aging, grief and bereavement that ultimately open windows to survival and hope.

"The death of a loved one brings their mortality into awareness and with it, our own," Karasin writes. "Every moment, precious and shrinking, is brought into keen focus when there aren't many left. Never did I feel compassion as strongly as when I was with my dying parents. I learned that it takes great courage to extend compassion because a heart must remain open in order for compassion to flow, even when that heart is breaking."

As the story unfolds, Wendy finds herself a divorced baby boomer sandwiched between her four young-adult children and the growing needs of her aging parents. Insightful chapters and flashbacks to her own childhood, her failed marriage, and both the joys and challenges along the way, illuminate a path that is both uniquely her own and one that millions of others may follow.

Karasin must learn to fully embrace her own life, even as the situation around her slips out of her control. She recalls, "Dad would croon a lullaby, 'Do you want the moon to play with? Or the stars to run away with? They'll come if you don't cry.' The words and his voice calmed me as a child, but they had a grander impact. They taught me to reach for the moon, but also to secure my footing along the way."

As life turns on itself, she is no longer the child, and must become the caregiver to her parents. And in yet another emotionally poignant life change, her own children become her support and comfort, a stabilizing force as she goes through the emotional endurance-training program of her life.

Attractive, vivacious and well-spoken, Karasin is an accomplished writer and popular blogger whose "Musings of a Boomer" can be found at wendykarasin.com. She holds a graduate degree from New York University, has worked in educational publishing, owned and operated a diet center, and provides professional services as a wellness and life coach. She presently splits her time between Long Island, New York and New Haven, Connecticut. In-person and telephone interviews with Karasin are encouraged. More information is available at moontoplaywith.com.

Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. - is a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with indie book publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 877-407-4847 today. For the latest, follow @balboapress on Twitter.

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