Yellowknife (Nov 12/04) - Counsellor Terry Garchinski has been using stories and parables in his healing from loss and grief workshops for years.

Now the Yellowknife resident has set one of those stories down in print. The book, I Believe, will be released in February.

The book is a compassionate story about a raindrop's life, losses and loves. Events of the raindrop's journey from birth to the ocean symbolize life events. Characters appear throughout the book to offer advice and comfort to the raindrop as he deals with the challenges and obstacles in his way.

"It's a parable or an analogy for people to address their attachments and their losses," said Garchinski.

He wrote the original manuscript two years ago and has not only used it in his workshops, but also with clients in personal sessions.

"I sit down beside them and I read it," he said. "It's different when someone else reads it to you."

Autumn Downey created the colourful illustrations for the book, and based the characters' caricatures on Garchinski's friends and family.

The young raindrop was based on Garchinski's four-year-old son, and as the raindrop gets older, he looks first like Garchinski's dad, then his grandfather.

"Dad, why am I getting so old?" Garchinski's son asked him when he first saw the manuscript.

Garchinski told him that's what happens to everyone eventually.

The raindrop's mom and dad take after Garchinski and his wife.

Overall, the book is meant to be used as a tool to help people accept loss and grief as normal events that happen to us all.

"It's a very good message that loss is a part of life," said Garchinski.

"We begin every workshop by saying 'I have some good news and I have some bad news. The bad news is we're all going to die. The good news is we're alive today.'"