by Judy Smoot (Author), Roy Smoot (Author), Melinda Folse (With)
For Judy Smoot, a devastating Glioblastoma Multiforme diagnosis means putting the spiritual practices she has taught so many others to the ultimate, personal test. As an artist, spiritual director, expressive arts teacher, retreat facilitator, and innovator of a non-profit organization supporting people with chronic disease, Judy shows us what it looks like to live fully into our own mortality by living fully into hers. It All Belongs invites its readers to journey with Judy as she first confronts her life's biggest challenge head-on and then travels through the end of her earthly existence with grace, humor, humility, courage, and the ultimate hope of our being. Family and friends said, "Judy showed us how to live ... and how to die."
But that's only half the story.
Following Judy's death, It All Belongs invites its readers to journey with Roy, Judy's husband of nearly 40 years, as he struggles to embrace the twin realities of love and grief. With extraordinary vulnerability, Roy offers a rare window into his struggle to learn the rhythms of this bittersweet dance. From the raw angst of navigating immediate day-to-day realities, to deep introspection during a long road trip out west, to culminating awareness on a spiritual quest in Iona, Scotland, Roy models the journey through unthinkable darkness to emerging triumphant into a full and abundant life.
Woven into both sides of this honest, beautiful, heartbreaking, and awe-inspiring narrative, readers will discover spiritual tools and practices to equip them and their loved ones for their own inevitable end-of-life realities. In this unique pairing of perspectives laced with exquisite art and poetry, It All Belongs brings hands-on help for navigating any unwanted life journey to embrace the amazing love, beauty, light, and joy tucked within even our most tragic experiences.
Back Jacket
Judy teaches us how to live--and how to die.
Roy shows us how to survive and return to joyful, abundant life.
Actively modeling spiritual and expressive arts practices she taught to so many others, Judy lives into her own mortal battle in a way that prompts a friend's observation, "Judy taught us how to live . . . and how to die."
But that's only half the story.
In the aftermath of Judy's death, Roy, Judy's husband of nearly 40 years, struggles to embrace the twin realities of love and grief, offering readers a rare window into this bittersweet dance between painful day-to-day realities and the search for one's new place in the world.
In this dual exquisite narrative laced with expressive art, poetry, and hands-on help, It All Belongs offers a unique pairing of perspectives to actively model spiritual tools and practices helpful for navigating life's inevitable realities and unwanted journeys -- while embracing the love, beauty, light, and joy in all our life's moments.
--Judy & Roy Smoot