Can the journey of soul-discovery lead to a more centered and wisdom-filled life? Is there a way to live at peace in a complicated and sometimes hateful world? Join Adriene Nicastro-Santos as she takes us on a journey of soul-discovery, showing how we can shed limiting beliefs that hold us back and develop a more intimate relationship with the Divine. She will help us understand how the soul is different from Spirit, and what we have to gain from soul-discovery.

Adriene Nicastro-Santos is an intuitive healer and psycho-spiritual therapist. She is also an award-winning author of The Soul-Discovery Journalbook, winner of the 2018 Silver Nautilus Books Award for Personal Growth and Development and a 2019 Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She holds a Master's degree from Hahnemann University specializing in Group Process and Psychotherapy and she regularly leads workshops and retreats, both locally and internationally. Adriene also offers private sessions for clients using a blend of metaphysics, psychotherapy and spiritual healing to guide individuals through deeper levels of transformation, spiritual development and personal growth.

Has your heart ever been opened by your relationship with a beloved animal? Playwright and essayist, Margaret Dulaney, will return to the Center for her third visit to read from her upcoming book, The Parables of Sunlight, a story revolving around the apparent mortal injury to a beloved horse, and the lessons learned from a lifetime of loving all of the animals which have crossed her path. "Recently," Margret states, "I have been on a mission to write more essays helping myself and others to let go of the residual images we hold of God as being almighty, rather than all-loving."

Margaret is the principal contributor to the spoken word website Listen Well, which posts a recorded essay each month to an eclectic following of open-faith listeners. She has been exploring sacred themes through her podcasts on ListenWell.org for nearly a decade. Her first book, To Hear The Forest Sing, was inspired by years of study of the shared wisdom of the great faiths, coupled with her daily contemplative walks in the woods with her dogs.

"A storyteller at heart, Dulaney writes with grace, and it doesn't take many pages to feel you're in conversation with a true and honest friend, one who unflinchingly bares her stumbles. It is clear you're in the presence of a lively mind, one filled with the epiphanies of an awakening soul." Chicago Tribune

Can music play a role in caring for individuals and families during major life transitions? Is there a place for both spiritual and clinical practices during end-of-life care? Can music enable us to authentically care for someone when there are no expectations of "getting better"? Join members of the Philadelphia Threshold Singers and Penn Medicine Hospice to explore how music may be used, both clinically and mystically, to care for those who are struggling—some with living and some with dying. Learn how a compassionate, interdisciplinary team of volunteer singers, music therapists and hospice workers can radically change the experience of some of life's most difficult transitions.

Threshold Singers are small groups of volunteers who gather to gently sing at bedsides, memorial services, and other thresholds of life in over 200 communities around the world. The voice is the perfect vehicle to convey compassion and comfort for those who are struggling or in transition. The Philadelphia Threshold Singers sing weekly at local hospices, and are also available to sing at other bedsides as well as memorial services. When invited, two to four singers come to sing simple, restful songs to comfort, support and honor both those at the threshold of life, as well as their families and caregivers. The Threshold Singers offer bedside singing as a gift, with no charge. However, donations are graciously accepted to support and enable their work to continue.

Melissa Srolovitz is a board-certified Music Therapist at Penn Medicine Hospice. Her master's degree from Colorado State University focused in Neurologic Music Therapy. In conjunction with her years of working with terminally-ill patients and families within hospice care, Melissa has also worked clinically with 'medically-fragile' children and adolescents, as well as with the geriatric population.

Eric Trumbower is Director of Volunteer Services at Penn Medicine Hospice. He is also Director of Camp Erin, an overnight bereavement camp for children and teens ages 6-17. Prior to Penn Medicine, Trumbower served for five years as Relief Manager at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House where he managed operations and staff for a 45-room facility. "At Ronald McDonald House," Trumbower states, "I found myself increasingly focused on the act of living. I saw what it takes to continue to live in the face of tremendous obstacles. With the help of a loving community, children with debilitating illnesses can still play and sing, parents can still laugh, and families struggling to make ends meet can still share each other's company and celebrate life. This is what I encourage volunteers at Penn Medicine Hospice to keep at the forefront of their minds every day as they visit with patients and families."