What if the bravest chapter of your life begins after everyone assumes your story is already written?
In this episode of Spirit Talk Show: Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups, Doyle welcomes author Lee Ann Walling, a journalist, political strategist, church musician, and lifelong storyteller who published her first novel at the age of 69. After decades shaping public policy, writing speeches, and helping communities tell their stories, Lee Ann finally turned inward and wrote her own.
Her novel, The Salt and Light Express, follows Chris—an older woman traveling west in a small RV to scatter the ashes of her longtime partner at Bryce Canyon. Along the way, grief collides with faith, prejudice meets compassion, and unexpected friendships reshape what healing can look like.
In this heartfelt conversation, Lee Ann reflects on reinvention later in life, the courage to write after decades in other careers, spiritual searching, and why it’s never too late to begin again. The discussion touches on grief, LGBTQ love, silent retreats, journalism ethics, and the strange beauty of the American West.
Along the way, Lee Ann reads from the opening of her novel, sharing the story of a woman learning—sometimes awkwardly, sometimes painfully—how to live again after loss.
If you’ve ever wondered whether creativity, love, or purpose has an expiration date, this episode offers a hopeful answer: it doesn’t.
Because sometimes the road west isn’t about escaping the past.
It’s about discovering the next right thing.
Learn more about Lee Ann Walling and her work:
https://www.leeannwalling.com/
Spirit Talk Show – Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups
Hosted by Doyle
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