Last night I read a book called A GRACIOUS PLENTY by Sheri Reynolds. It's a quick read, only about 250 pages.

Finch Nobles tends to the flowers and shrubs surrounding an isolated cemetery in a small Southern town. Finch, who was badly burned at the age of 4, is a loner. She discovers she can hear the voices of those buried in her cemetery. Through her narrative we learn the regrets, explanations and insights of the dead. When the residents of Nobles cemetery first arrive, their spirits are heavy; unable to move about freely. It is through the telling of their stories that they 'lighten and fade away'.

I love the concept. It is through sharing our life experience that we lighten our burdens. We teach others by example or warning and are somehow able to free ourselves from the regrets of the past. I know from personal experience, sharing a painful past in order to help another lightens the spirit.

Don't search this novel for any type of Christian theology. You won't find it. Don't pick apart the visions of the afterlife we are shown. Just enjoy a good story about a woman who learns from the dead how to thrive in the world of the living.