The last adventure of life - Maria Dancing Heart

"The Last Adventure of Life: Sacred Resources for Living and Dying from a Hospice Counsellor", is a tool for healing and prayer. This book will assist anyone who is grieving, preparing to die, caring for loved ones who are ill, or interested in exploring new ways to view spirituality and death. It is an "introduction to hospice," honoring that hospice care is an experience grounded in spirituality. Because Maria's work in spiritual and bereavement care with hospice honors the inter-relatedness of all things, this book has a universal perspective and appeal. Anyone could pick it up and appreciate it; it is also likely to assist those desiring to go deeper spiritually.This book includes inspirational stories, poetry, scripture, prayers, and guided meditations. It also has chapters on grief and relaxation/healing tools, and a wealth of reference material. It is a "treasure house of hope and healing," reframing the experience of death as a new and exciting chapter in life. Through her work, Maria hopes that death, grief, and transformation of all kinds might be looked at in new ways. We can see these experiences as adventures and "gifts" in our lives, rather than experiences to be avoided.

The Rev. Maria 'Dancing Heart' Hoaglund has been doing some kind of spiritual work for most of her life, with the foundation of a cross-cultural perspective due to her birth and upbringing in Japan. She attended Pacific School of Religion after graduating from Yale College. She later graduated from Chicago Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity. Maria served as a parish minister with the U.C.C. Church for ten years; she then transitioned into hospice ministry twelve years ago. In 2005, she self-published her first book, The Last Adventure of Life: Sacred Resources for Transition. Through her work and interests, Maria has become knowledgeable of many alternative healing and spiritual practices, and she incorporates these in her work. She is recognised as a broad-based spiritual counsellor, bridging traditional religion with the new spirituality being birthed around the world.