Coming Soon
Encore
Encore is a sanctuary for the open-hearted seeker and the grieving soul alike: a guide for the caregiver at the bedside and the traveler lost in the fog of life. It is an invitation to face the storm head-on, knowing that this is your encore.
Overview
It began when a parent in spirit led Kim Buehler Jones to the bedside of their dying child, a friend she hadn't seen in decades. As she helped her friend through the end of life, Kim shared a vision she had received from her late father: when her friend passed, they would become her teacher. Her friend agreed, and forty-one lessons, channeled word for word, fulfilled that vision. Together they form a guided journey inward that offers insight into the true nature of living and helps readers connect with their soul and live from the heart: seeing the lesson in every hardship, practicing gratitude and compassion, and learning to drop the heavy anchor of the ego and pick up the light of eternal love.
When we face grief with an open heart, we find the soul's love that has been there all along. To avoid or numb the pain of loss is to numb the love that is our very foundation. Love and grief are not enemies. They are two hands holding the same golden cord, the sacred fabric that connects all of life.
With the Teacher's raw, honest lessons and the SMILE reflections as their guide, readers begin their own journey of grieftelling, and learn that love does not end where life changes; it transforms. Like the buffalo that walks into the wind to find clear air, Encore teaches readers to move through grief and into Sacred Remembrance: remembering who they truly are and the love that never left. Here the "Loss of Me" becomes the discovery of the Divine. Even in our hardest transitions, we are not reaching an end. We are stepping into a bonus performance of joy, awe, grace, gratitude, and divine connection.
The story begins in morning meditation, with a voice from a parent who had already passed: "Please help my child." Kim, an educator, End-of-Life Doula, and Advanced Grief Recovery Method Specialist, answered by carrying the parent's message to her friend's bedside. Over the months that followed, the friend stopped running from their grief and turned to face it, like a buffalo charging through a storm.
Two days before their physical passing, the friend appeared to Kim in spirit, running free with their beloved dog. "I am your teacher now," they said. "There is nothing to fear. I'm free." The lessons that followed carry the Teacher's unmistakable wit, wisdom, and colorful language, alongside the deeper wisdom of a "tribe of teachers" in spirit.
The story doesn't end with the final lesson. On the thirtieth anniversary of his passing, Kim's own father came through with a love letter of his own. Shared in the book's afterword, his words close the circle that began with another parent's plea. A father's love reaches across three decades to his daughter, a reminder that the bond between parent and child does not end with death, and that it is never too late to hear "I love you" from the other side.
The Encore Path
S
Surrender the Grief
M
Meet Your Soul
I
Interdependence
L
Love's Light
E
Expand into the Divine
Why it matters
Most of us are taught to avoid and numb our pain. Encore offers a different path, through the voice of a teacher who found these truths late in life and shares them so readers won't follow in their footsteps. Grief is honored here as the doorway to the soul, and every lesson leads readers to remember their true self and live from love, one lesson at a time.
Whether readers are grieving a person, a relationship, a dream, or a version of themselves, Encore meets them where they are. It is written for the newly bereaved and the long-grieving alike, and for anyone who senses there is more to life, and to death, than what we can see. The afterword offers one final reassurance: the people we love are still loving us.
This is the map for anyone ready to discover that the soul's most beautiful song is often sung in the light of the transition.
What the reader receives
Each of the forty-one lessons includes:
- The Teacher's message, shared exactly as received, with only privacy-protecting details marked in brackets
- An original painting by award-winning artist Julie Adriansen, a visual translation of the teaching
- Your Inner Canvas: Reflect and Connect, open space to respond in words or drawings
- SMILE: Soul Awareness Reflections, five guided questions written uniquely for each lesson, following the five SMILE steps (Surrender the Grief, Meet Your Soul, Interdependence, Love's Light, and Expand into the Divine) to turn that lesson's teaching into practice
Highlights
- A true, moving frame story: a parent's plea, a deathbed reunion, and a promise kept from the other side
- A teacher readers will remember: funny, stubborn, tender, and sometimes salty
- One central teaching that runs through every page: "Drop the ego, pick up love"
- The Ten Golden Guideposts for Living from Your Higher Self
- A heartfelt afterword in which Kim's own father returns with a love letter on the thirtieth anniversary of his passing, bringing the book full circle
- A resource appendix, including crisis and grief support lines
Your encore is waiting.
While you wait, there is more taking shape: The Loss of Me podcast and a Master Class, both by Kim Buehler Jones and Ita L. Jervis together.