Defining Grace

Told through intimate vignettes and sprinkled with soulful poetry, Defining Grace is an invitation to attune to Grace’s quiet wisdom and to love ourselves and each other into new possibilities.

Deeply personal and universally resonant, Defining Grace traces Alley’s improbable journey toward her purpose, exploring how she found her true voice and dared to use it to bring hope and courage to individuals, communities, and to the very systems in which we live.

Written with humility and wonder, this soulful memoir is for anyone seeking meaning or ready to celebrate the wisdom already stirring within. Whether you are in the midst of change, searching for direction, or deepening your spiritual path, this book offers companionship and encouragement for the journey.

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Gems from Defining Grace

  • “Grace works outside space and time. When we have what feels like a multidimensional experience, it is an invitation to listen for Her—maybe even ask Her questions. She is always willing to dance.”

  • “Experience leaves an imprint on our psyches, good, bad or indifferent. It matters tremendously how we integrate our experience into serving our life’s purpose, even if we cannot fully articulate what that is.”

  • “If I step back far enough, scan the Big and Mysterious landscape, a wind captures my attention and lifts me above the daily, the laundry, mole-hills and mountains. Strings go slack. I am held in the moment, an ancient fledgling rising on a current of meaning. This is the love that sustains me, the pith of what I am called to teach—as an elder.”

  • "Matters of the heart exist outside time and endure no matter what we think. They happen to slide right in through wonder no matter what age we are in life and can leave Grace Tracks on our hearts."

  • "Grace has some favorite practices: beauty, wisdom, gratitude, forgiveness, wonder, empathy, compassion, equanimity, peace, joy, generosity, love, and don’t forget humor!"

Grace is no accident.
She is the life-force of love.

Defining Grace is an invitation to listen deeply, live with wonder, and co-create with Grace for the common good.

Buy Defining Grace at:

Sunbury Press (my publisher)
Galaxy Bookshop
The Flying Pig Bookstore
Amazon

Kind Words about Defining Grace

  • “A wholehearted walk with a wise woman of graceful mischief.”

    — Jack Korfield, PhD., author of A Wise Heart.

  • “To know Trish Alley is to love Trish Alley. Each time I’ve read Defining Grace: Showing Up with the Gift of Divine Mischief, it has brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. Trish tells the story of her life, a life filled with many challenges and greater successes, in a thought-provoking and compelling manner. She reminds us that if we have the courage to confront the challenges, inequities, and disappointments we face and the grace to do so with compassion, understanding, integrity, and resilience, we will find success in our lives and make a difference in the world. Thank you, Trish, for telling it like it is and reminding us of what is truly important.”

    — Steve Piltch, Ph.D. Retired Director of School Leadership Programs, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and Former Head of School at the Shipley School. Steve is an Advisor to Mildred’s Dream Foundation.

  • “Defining Grace is a reminder that purpose and meaning aren’t just about accomplishment. They can emerge from what attention teaches us: the sounds in a room, a bend in the road, a flare of pain, or a stranger arriving at just the right moment. Alley’s gift is making awareness feel like a spiritual practice you can carry—one step, one breath at a time."

    — David Simas, J.D. Managing Director, Research, the Emerson Collective. Past President of the Obama Foundation.

  • “This is an interesting highly personal memoir. She is generous about her life and experiences.  Her book is full of insights. Worth reading.”

    — Gov. Madeleine May Kunin, Governor of Vermont, Ambassador to Switzerland, and Deputy Secretary of Education. Author of eight books, including Pearls, Politics, and Power, Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties, and Walk with Me: Poems.

  • “I’m so moved by Trish’s journey, and by the way she continues to show up—curious, connected, and full of grace. There’s such a hunger right now for stories that soften us, surprise us, and remind us that love still matters. Defining Grace has heart, wisdom, and a voice entirely her own. I have no doubt our paths will cross again in meaningful ways.”

    — Lara Love Hardin, Author of The Many Lives of Mama Love, President and Founder of True Literary, Former Co-CEO of Idea Architects. Winner of a 2019 Christopher Award for her work “affirming the highest values of the human spirit”.

  • “With her stories in Defining Grace, Trish Alley invites us to look for places of graceful mischief in our own lives, whether we see it in our four-legged friends, poetry, or creating community like Trish. She does it delightfully with the tools that Matthew Fox named in Creativity: ‘Humor and paradox are often the only ways to respond to life's sorrow with grace.'” 

    — Shelly L. Francis, author of The Courage Way: Leading and Living with Integrity

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© 2026 Trish Alley
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