Jan's Rainbow; Stories of Hope; How those we have loved and lost stay in touch

About the Book

It was just one day after Lindsay Collier's wife of forty years, Jan, lost her battle with ovarian cancer that a beautiful rainbow surrounded their home in upstate New York where family members were gathered to celebrate her life. Since that time there have been many amazing experiences that have provided some very compelling proof that Jan is not very far away. And Lindsay, a former engineer (engineers always need proof), is not one who is prone to fantasy which makes these occurrences all the more believable. He also tells about some other rather amazing experiences that he and his family have had following losses of other loved ones. These stories alone will make a believer out of you. But there is much more!

Lindsay also found that, as he related these stories to friends and associates, he would often find that they would frequently offer their own stories about how lost loved ones had made contact with them. The stories were amazing and revolved around everything from dragonflies to birds to lights and clocks changing to things appearing out of nowhere. There are more than twenty-five of these included in the book, all of which will leave you feeling very good - and a little less lonely for those you have lost.

Lindsay made a commitment to learn as much as he could from his loss and to help others to find ways to survive their loss. He has spoken to a number of bereavement groups about how to survive loss and shares these insights in Jan's Rainbow. His suggestions and ideas on dealing with loss come from true experience. Before taking early retirement, Lindsay was the Creative Thinking Guru for Kodak so his ideas tend to be different. As he says, "Losing a loved one is a life-changing experience and it requires some very creative thinking to get through it." There are some wonderful, and very different, tips for dealing with loss included that will ease the journey through the bereavement process. Included are ways to re-frame your thinking, how to use positive humor in your healing, and the use of metaphors to expand your thinking or finding innovative ways to survive, and much, much more.

This book is a must for anyone who has lost a loved one or knows of someone who has. It is the ultimate "feel good" book for helping people to deal with losing a loved one. You'll cry, you'll laugh, and you'll be lifted to a new level of hope. A substantial portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to Gilda's Club of Rochester (New York), an organization built in memory of Gilda Radner which provides help to women with cancer.

About the Author

Lindsay is the founder of Creative Edge Associates, an upstate New York firm dedicated to helping organizations tap the enormous creative potential of their people. He calls himself a Wicked Good Slayer of Organizational Sacred Cows. He is the author of three other books, Get Out of Your Thinking Box: 365 Ways to Brighten Your Life and Enhance Your Creativity, The Whack-A-Mole Theory; Creating Breakthrough and Transformation in Organizations, and Quotations to Tickle Your Brain. A new book, Organizational Mental Floss; 21st Century Thinking for Organizations, is on the way.

A Mechanical Engineer and MBA, he was Kodak's Technology Leader for Creativity, Innovation, and Strategic Exploration until taking an early retirement in 1991. He taught creative thinking and future scouting processes to hundreds of people and facilitated ideation sessions at all levels within the company. Just prior to leaving he designed and set up the Kodak Humor and Creativity Room designed to provide a place for people to bring out their creativity and humor and apply it to their work. He has been on NBC Today and CNBC and featured in the Wall Street Journal and has been asked to speak in South Africa several times to help people of that country better understand how to creatively think about their future. His clients include organizations of all types and sizes to include several Fortune 100 companies.

He is also founder and past President of the Western New York Futurists chapter of the World Future Society, past President of the Rochester Professional Consultants's Network, past Director of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and a Collegue of the Creative Education Foundation. His innovative work as a futurist combined with a vast knowledge of creative thinking and organizational change process has given him some very unique and powerful techniques to help organizations create futures they never thought possible.