It All Belongs: Love, Loss, & Learning to Live Again

Winner of 2024 Nautilus Book Award, Silver medal, Death & Dying, Grief & Loss

 
Winner of 2024 Independent Publishers Book Awards Gold medal, Outstanding Book Award, “Most Original Concept” 


Winner of 2024 Independent Publishers Book Awards Silver Medal, Cover Design

Grief Share Facilitator
"With the shock of loss, it's hard to understand how the world around us can keep going when our world has suddenly stopped. I'm so glad for your commitment to go beyond your grief in order to help others." — Carolyn Hutcheson, Former Grief Share Facilitator
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Cancer Survivor
"It All Belongs is meant to be read, simmered like a cup of hot tea and as the words sink in so does the warmth of love you both had for each other ... Judy was meant to go through this training so she could write in her journals a roadmap for others traveling a similar path." —Karen Arel, Retired Chamber of Commerce President, Cancer Survivor
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Hospice of Southern Maine
"I talked with my colleagues. We want to say, again, how truly amazing your book is as a resource to people as they travel their grief journey. — Ms. Daryl Cady, CEO, Hospice of Southern Maine
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Winner of Two Independent Book Publishers Awards
Winner of 2024 Independent Book Publishers (IPPY) Awards: Gold Medal, Outstanding Book Award for "Most Original Concept" and Silver Medal for cover design.
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It All Belongs: Love, Loss & Learning to Live Again

What can you do when you're facing the end of your life—or the life of someone you love?

In this exquisite dual narrative laced with expressive art, poetry, journaling, 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.

For Judy Smoot, a devastating terminal 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. 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.

Following Judy’s death, It All Belongs then 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, poetry, and journaling, 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.

JUDY & ROY met in college at Ohio State, were married following graduation, and for the next four decades lived and loved in Georgia, Florida, Ohio, and Maine.

Roy enjoyed a successful banking career; Judy served as a Wellstreams spiritual director, a Dominican Associate, and an Expressive Arts Florida Institute (EAFI) graduate. Judy established Always We Begin Again (AWBA), a non-profit organization to support people with chronic illness. Later in life they made their home at “Sunrise Ridge,” their cottage and retreat center renovated and created in the breathtaking beauty of Ohio’s Hocking Hills.

MELINDA FOLSE is a writer, editor, and collaborator on a mission to tell stories that make a difference. She believes this story will strike a meaningful chord in every life it touches. It All Belongs is her eighth book, joining Grandmaster, Dream Catcher, and Lessons Well Learned as her favorite explorations of lives and passions well lived. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

What our readers are saying

Top reviews from the United States

Mother Earth
Mother Earth
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It is hard to top the importance of our friends. I went to school with Tommy Spinks & Terry Bradshaw so this was a fun walk down memory lane. They had a life-long friendship that those of us who have had similar friendships cherish.
Gpaul
Gpaul
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Beautiful Story of determination What a wonderful story. The junior high school year stories were the best. Testament to love and determination. Feel good.
Sister
Sister
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It’s a true story. Loved all of it. It was an amazing story. Very hard to put down. I’m familiar with both characters but still learned still more about them. Highly recommend this book.
Lisa Lampert
Lisa Lampert
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How kids once felt about real football! This book is for people who love Terry Bradshaw. It’s really about his best friend and a life of friendship!!! Great easy read!
Bert Ravenna
Bert Ravenna
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Bradshaw and Spinks an easy read. Very enjoyable. A "feel good" book.
Amazon Customer
Amazon Customer
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Football players can appreciate Enjoyable read
Dona A. Monroe
Dona A. Monroe
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Wonderful Book Tommy Spinks was a friend of mine and I was broken hearted when he died so young. So it was a thrill to be able to have this book filled with his thoughts and pictures. Tommy had a wonderfully zany sense of humor and he loved to laugh. When you read this book be prepared to laugh a lot plus have a box of tissues near. I cried rivers when I read this book.
Kathy Walker
Kathy Walker
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Great Book about a good guy!!! I bought “Dream Catcher” as a Christmas Gift for my mother. Since I went to junior high and high school with Tommy Spinks and Terry Bradshaw and my mother has known of them since that time, she has thoroughly enjoyed this book!!! She usually just reads at night and not during the daytime UNTIL “Dream Catcher” came along!!! Now she is reading in the day as well as night. She said she just can’t put it down!!! She said it is the “Best book she has ever read”!!! I can hardly wait until she finishes so I can read it too. Great book!!!
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