Dana Trent is an author who makes our lives more bearable as we deal with grief with her tender heart and lovable personality. She is a is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and professor of World Religions and Critical Thinking at Wake Tech Community College. An ordained Baptist minister and former hospital chaplain, her work has appeared on Time.com, and in Religion News Service, Sojourners, Religion Dispatches, and The Christian Century. Her book invites the reader on a rich journey of considering death—our own and our loved ones’—as a sweet spiritual part of life, rather than a dreaded destination. And did I mention she is lovable? 

https://jdanatrent.com/

My guests today are Baier and Anne Fine from Brave Sky Ranch in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where they believe interaction with horses is the key to solving the mystery of healing the heart. Brave Sky Ranch also believes that friendship with horses is an incredible and unsung tool to help individuals move forward, away from past trauma and pain.

Lisa Smartt is the author of Words at the Threshold, a book dedicated to the final words of the dying. When Lisa's father became terminally ill with cancer, she began recording his conversations and noticed that his personality showed some curious changes. Once a skeptical man with a secular worldview, he developed a deeply spiritual outlook in his final days — a change that was reflected in his language. Lisa came from a background of linguistics training and majored in linguistics at UC Berkeley so this provoked her to track his final words.

http://www.finalwordsproject.org/

Meet a funeral singer: In her music, Kathleen Lundquist seeks the pathway to love that lasts, plunging into the ocean of human emotion to find truths of the spirit.  Her songwriting explores issues of faith, love, fear, anger, tragedy, healing, and hope. In her experience, encountering the Light is much more meaningful for those who feel their darkness.

http://mystagogia.net/index/

My guest today is Dr. Shane J. Wood, the professor of New Testament Studies and Associate Academic Dean at Ozark Christian College, and author of the new book, Between Two Trees.: Our Transformation from Death to Life.... And super fan of the enneagram.

www.shanejwood.com

 My guest today is Lora Jones, author of Song of a Wounded Heart. She is an inspirational speaker and lives in Liberal, Kansas.  In November 2004, Lora Jones was a happy wife and proud mother of two beautiful children. Lora and her family left for a family vacation, excited to celebrate the holidays, but sounds of music and laughter in their van were shattered by a head-on collision. Lora watched helplessly as, one-by-one, her beloved family slipped into eternity. Awake in a nightmare, all traces of laughter were replaced by the mournful cries of a wounded heart. How in the world could Lora go on alone?Song of a Wounded Heart tells the true story of Lora’s journey from death to hope. Unbelievably, God sang to her the night of the accident.

https://www.lorajones.org

Melinda Gustafson Gervasi is an Attorney at Law in the lovely city of Madison, Wisconsin. She’s the author of “Middle Class Philanthropist: How Anyone Can Leave a Legacy.” During the course of her legal practice, Melinda recognized a need for clients who are working on estate planning but had no obvious heir. In this book, she redefines the conventional view of philanthropy, by providing simple and practical tools for anyone to follow to leave their own legacy. 

http://gustafsonlegal.blogspot.com/

Mike wrote “Hard Way Home,” his story about the biggest things in life, which is ironic because it ends with a death. When Amy Nappa was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV-B uterine cancer, her life and that of her husband's, Mike, changed forever .

For more information: www.nappaland.com

Rico discusses his books, Fire in My Bones, and Pastah! Tales From the Feet of a Street Minister.