The Best Day

What if your worst day could become your best day?

The Best Day: A Memoir of Finding Joy, Inspiration, Resilience, and Hope is a story-driven memoir by Joseph H. Krakoff, a hospice chaplain who has devoted his life to visiting, comforting, and counseling people during the most profound moments of their lives. Told as a collection of 18 true stories, the book is equally suited to reading cover to cover, a single chapter at a sitting, or selected stories for book clubs and group discussions. Rabbi Krakoff is President and CEO of the Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network (JHCN) in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and the author of Never Long Enough: Finding Comfort and Hope Amidst Grief and Loss.

If you are looking for a memoir or short story collection about finding joy in difficult times, this book will inspire you with true stories that show how an ordinary person can discover that life's hardest moments can become doorways into wisdom, peace, and unexpected happiness. How could the day you were fired become a best day in retrospect? How could there be anything good about being trapped inside an elevator plunging toward the ground? You'll find such surprising transformations in these pages.

That's why best-selling author Brian D. McLaren said, "I love Rabbi Krakoff's book. He defines happiness as 'a lifelong spiritual journey of reclaiming our resilience when bad things happen, and fully appreciating the wonderment of the good things that happen.' Through memorable stories from his life and ministry, and meaningful reflections on Scripture, Krakoff invites all of us deeper into that kind of spiritual journey in The Best Day."

And, there's so much more in these 18 stories. If you have ever wondered what hospice work and end-of-life care can teach the rest of us about how to live, Krakoff opens the door to this world, too. You will meet Ron, a man who moved home to die and instead lived another 13 months in which he experienced some of the best days of his life. You will learn from people nearing the end of life who have quietly taught him about love, peace, and what truly matters.

If you are searching for a path to hope after grief or hardship, The Best Day draws on the Bible and the world's great spiritual traditions, including Psalm 90's call to "number our days that we may attain a heart of wisdom." The Best Day is a perfect gift for caregivers, grieving readers, hospice and palliative care professionals, book clubs, and anyone who wants to live with more gratitude, presence, and resilience.

The best day of your life may still be ahead.