As I end my podcast for the foreseeable future, I reflect with great gratitude upon what I have learned, the people I have met, the support I have enjoyed and the incredible opportunity to tell and share stories from people all over this world. I want to end this season, episode and podcast as I started it, by stepping out of the boat of sameness and into the sea of adventure. Although I would have liked to thank each guest by name, I did not want my whole episode to sound like a segment fr...

I can not imagine a better guest to end this fourth season of Livin' What You're Given Podcast, than Robin Freed. Robin is also my last interview as I end the podcast for the foreseeable future. The reason Robin is such a great fit for this role is because she embodies all the values and encouraging messages I've tried to highlight in this show for four seasons. Ms. Freed is a musician, playing several instruments, including piano, harp, and hammered dulcimer. She is a teacher of all of...

My guest today holds a special place in my heart. Her name is Suzanne Chimera and she is Co-Founder of ​Hair We Share, an organization that takes hair donations and make wigs for people who are losing their hair due to a variety of reasons. I met Suzanne in January of 2024 when I contacted her to take a donation of my sister, Mary's, hair after she passed away from cancer. Mary had long brown hair but because she had gray throughout her locks, I had to find a place that would take hair that ...

My guest today, Beatrice Bruno, the Drill Sergeant of Life, joins me as we explore the idea of gratitude in all things. She talks about being thankful for each day and the opportunities she has been given by God, including her very life. As the author of books on various topics, including grief, Beatrice shares helpful hints on how to navigate life's ups and downs through being grateful at all times. For example, she reflects on how a person came to just sit with her after the passing of her ...

This month, November, I am bringing on two guests who remind us of the power of gratitude even in these difficult, divided and tumultuous times. The gentleman who is my first guest in November, Stephen Ray Watts, shares with me and my audience today about how his life, ministry and music have been influenced by having a grateful heart. If you recognize the name, that is because this is one of the musicians who has lent his music to me for the purpose of enriching this podcast for the last fo...

My guest today is Michelle Rohlf, and she is granting me another interview to follow up her interview in May of 2023. In our last session, Michelle and I discussed the pain of having a child estrange themselves from us. She described her journey through her healing process and writing a book that chronicled that process. Today, Michelle describes how her work has helped her and others. She says that while writing the book, "Losing Her, Finding Me" (info below) she learned not only abou...

Karen DeArmond Gardner is a survivor of thirty years in a marriage where she was verbally, emotionally and at times physically abused. She talks about how her own work of writing a book, speaking to others and helping to educate communities around the issue of domestic abuse, has been helpful for her own growth and healing. She points out that churches are not always equipped to deal with this issue. She states it is better to go to shelters, support groups, therapy and advocates who ...

Today, my guest, author and speaker Lori Ann Wood, discusses where her story of a divine detour has taken her and how sharing her story has helped other people. After discovering she had end-stage heart failure, she began to ask the questions of God that we are trained not to ask. This is a follow up to our original interview that took place on March 8, 2023 called, "Involuntary Tide Turning." Please feel free to go back and listen to that for more of her backstory. Her journey began nine y...

In a rare presentation of a solo episode, I talk about my philosophy that we can indeed learn to love, speak and walk with dignity, even in a world where winning at all costs is everything. Pulling from real-life experience, I share a story from my 2018 publication "Jesus in Shorts: Twenty-five Short Stories of Life-Changing Jesus Moments." The lead story in that collection of short stories is one about almost losing a life-long friend because of my insistence on being right. While in ...

Please note: This is a rebroadcast of an episode that I ran in 2023. Because we are still in the political chaos, or perhaps worse, I feel it is important for us to remember that we can have a voice, we can turn this tide and we can bring unity to our beautiful U.S.A. by turning from the chaos to the reasonable and unifying voices. I was excited to sit down with former senator and house representative, Don Coram, from the Western Slope of Colorado today. Our conversation f...