Together At Peace Podcast
Episode 12: “Are You Here?” – A Conversation on Love, Loss & Signs That Stay with Jenny & Travis Clark
Host Christine Marzullo of the Together at Peace podcast invited me and my husband, Travis Clark (lead singer of We The Kings, to share the origin story behind the song “Are You Here” and my new children’s book Are You Here? A Story about the Magical Signs All Around Us.
My mom Gigi was the pillar of our family. Gigi lit up every room and when she passed, I was overwhelmed with grief. This book is so special and Christine was the first person I was connected to that could share with her community without ever seeing the book.
In this episode, we discuss:
The 3 a.m. moment that inspired the book and song
How grief has shaped our relationship, family, and faith
The role of storytelling, music, and community in healing
What we’ll be sharing live at the Sparkle of Hope Luncheon this Fall
So much gratitude for this. Whether you’re navigating grief or walking alongside someone who is, I hope this conversation offers comfort, hope, and a reminder that love doesn’t end.
Listen now, and join us this Fall at the Sparkle of Hope Luncheon in September.
This episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, PodBean, iHeart Radio, and Amazon Music.
More resources:
Grief community for folks to feel safe and seen. Continuing to grow with stories, drawings, and requests for prayers
Stream “Are You Here?” performed by Travis Clark of We The Kings on all the platforms where you get your music like Spotify, Youtube, and Apple Music.
About Together at Peace founder Christine Marzullo similarly lost her father unexpectedly over two decades ago and shares a Catholic upbringing like Jenny.
Christine sees hopeful little signs that feel like a big hug and remind her connection with him like in dreams, Lake Geneva sunsets, walks on beach, pennies from heaven, and songs playing on the radio at the perfect time.
Transcript:
Narrator: Welcome to The Together at Peace Podcast, a hopeful space to honor love, navigate loss and spread the light that still shines. Here's your host and heart behind our mission, founder Christine Marzullo.
Host: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Together at Peace Podcast. I'm your host, Christine Marzullo, and today's episode is one that I know will touch your heart in the most powerful way. I'm honored to be joined by Jenny Robinson Clark, a wife, mother, writer, and the beautiful heart behind the children's book, Are You Here? And her husband, Travis Clark, the lead singer of the band, We The Kings, and the musical force behind the song of the same name, “Are You Here?”
Together, they've turned deep personal grief into something extraordinary, an offering of hope through words, music, and community. And we're thrilled they'll also be joining us this year at our Sparkle of Hope luncheon to share their story, their book, and their song with our Together at Peace community.
So Jenny, thank you for coming on the show, Travis. I'm so excited you were able to join us as well. I am so excited, and it's a weird word to say excited when you're talking about grief, but you have such a beautiful story and just sharing your mom, her spirit, how she's empowered you to kind of live your grief in a beautiful and unique way is something that will really resonate with our community as well.
So your story begins with our connection, as in the loss of your mom, which is so heartbreaking. But let's go back and can you introduce us to your mom? Tell us a little bit about her and then kind of get into that season of grieving and what that felt like for you.
Jenny: OK, I'm already a little emotional. Just hearing that intro is beautiful. So thank you. This book is so special. And you are the first person that I was connected to that could share it with your community and more people than I than I even imagined. My goal with the book was to put it out and have my children see me accomplish a goal.
So the fact that you didn't even see the book and you believed in me and my story and you want me here on your podcast and at your luncheon really means a lot. So I just wanted to say that really quick because I'm feeling emotional and there's a lot going on in our lives too right now, which I'll share maybe later on in the podcast. But I'm really, really have a grateful heart right now.
But my mom, that's also obviously going to make me emotional because she was the pillar of our family. She… one of the sayings that she would always say is “no worries” and so she always had the smile on her face when she walked into a room, she was the light.
Like you were so attracted to her. She never once complained about anything, even in our childhood. She got into a car accident when I was little.
She was in the hospital for some bacteria that got into her blood. And she was in the hospital for a couple days. And she never was one to complain about the situation that she was in. And when she got sick, she was the same way. And I feel like that was such an inspiration to me, because she was always a fighter all through her life. I feel like God could have taken her many times.
And I'm grateful that he waited till she was 65, even though that was still too young to be taken. But I'm so grateful for all those years leading up to her now going into her heavenly home, which when that happened, and I did have such a weight lifted off my shoulders when that happened, because I knew she was finally home and I knew she wasn't struggling and fighting this terrible disease that she was fighting for so long. But she is a light.She was a light. And that's the one thing that I love talking about, because her smile brightened anybody's day.
Travis: Yeah, it's also, you know, everybody knows somebody that's that's maybe gone too quickly or knows somebody that has somebody that's passing. And there are a lot of people who, through the process of getting sick, you know, they lose who they are or who they were. And her mom, you know, my mama bear, she never lost who she was. She was just she was the same person. All you could you could tell that she she wasn't feeling great, but like she never lost who she was.
Jenny: Like she never lost that Sparkle of Hope. Yeah, which is so which is such a beautiful sentiment because she literally never lost that Spark of Hope in till the end, you know.
Travis: Yeah. I don't know what Jenny was saying just to kind of introduce the listeners to who this beautiful woman was, Mama Bear, who she was. She she absolutely was the pillar of the family. She was just always she made everything more fun. We would take her to to soccer games. She would make something that was already fun, much more fun. She flew to New York to watch me play on Fox and Friends. And she got these poster boards. And she was like, “I'm Travis' mama bear.”
She had these and she gave everybody markers to sign. And you know, she she made something that was special for me more fun. And that's just that's that's who she is to her core. It was just somebody that is there to help people have more fun and help people. Just really enjoyed the moment.
Jenny: And belonged, right? I don't know. I feel like I could talk now forever about my mom, now that you've asked that question. But I remember bringing Travis home for the first time. And I was raised Catholic, so very strict. And Travis was, you know, nose ring, tats all over up and down his arms.
But the minute he walked into our house, first of all, our dog loved him. The minute he walked in, Mocha, and I feel like dogs know, right? Energy, dogs know energy. And Mocha was obsessed with him right off the bat. But even my mom, like, she never once judged the outside physical appearance of Travis. She went straight to his heart, and she was his biggest fan. After even just the first day of meeting him, she loved you so much. And she knew that you had one of the best hearts, which you do.
Christine: Aw, well, I just, I love your mom. Her light is just continuing to make everything brighter, just through you both. I think you're living her legacy as well. I'm sure I can just tell by your vibe that everywhere you go, you make everything more fun than it already was. What an amazing legacy to leave with your family. I mean, that's something that everyone can do because it's just the sheer enthusiasm and love for your family and friends when you're bringing that next level, making everything more fun.
And that is just a great takeaway and a beautiful legacy and you're living it. I can tell both of you are letting her light still shine. And I think she's still a part of your making everything a little bit more fun. And I think that's part of your mission with Are You Here? Because you're feeling that she is here and she is able to add that other extra layer of sparkle and fun to the things you are doing with your family and in your career. And she's still there and illuminating this beautiful light around your family and all of the things you're doing.
Jenny: Sorry, just really quick that we connected to because my mission with Are You Here is also to not have people stay in the grief, to live in the grief. I really want people to be able to ride the wave and everybody's grief is going to be different. I lost my mom, I don't know the grief of losing a child, or everyone's going to be so different.
But if we can learn to ride the wave of grief and get onto the other side of it, there is so much beauty on the other side waiting for you. So much joy, so much peace, so much connection that you never thought there could be. Our loved ones are living through us and wanting us to be there, not to stay in that sadness
Travis: What a beautiful element of proof of how much love that was there. You're able to, when you do grieve and when you do feel that sadness, it's just, it's evidence of how much love that was there between those people. So there's that, but there's also just the proof of, you know, I see Jenny and I see so much of her mom and your dad and you. And then I see our kids, you know, her grandkids, and I see so much of her and kids and two of them that she was never able to meet. I still see part of her, you know, and both of them.
Jenny: Even more so in the ones that she never met. Yeah, I do feel like Kali, yeah, my third child. She was born after my mom passed and it was like, all my kids were angels, but she was like this angel sent, and I feel like it was my mom that sent her.
Travis: I remember she used to say, so Mama Bear passed right before Kali was born, and Kali would say that she, and like the spirit world, she would hang out with Gigi. That's their nickname for Jenny's mom. She probably picked it up from church and these things, but she turned it into like, yeah, I was with Gigi and then I picked my family and I came to meet you guys.
And it was just so beautiful. We just see so much of this light and this sparkle. And I really do think that, you know, it's obviously, it's okay to be sad. It's okay to recognize how much love was there. And that can sometimes come in the form of sadness. But the light that she was, I know that the characteristic that she would want to see in her kids and grandkids.
So we try to help people with the grief and especially with like, you know, a kid's book, you know, if you told somebody, hey, this kid's book is dealing with grief, some people might be like, ugh, you know, it's, but it's such a beautiful topic, hard and challenging, sometimes yes. But it is beautiful to, because it happens to everybody. Nobody's exempt from this thing, so.
Jenny: I think the conversation helps in the healing.
Travis: And the way that you did it is so beautiful and it has so much of your mom in it that it just, it can't help itself from just being such a light.
Christine: Yeah, I really want to talk about, I want to talk about the book. I just going back to when you're talking about your little one saying that she met them in the spirit world. My son, who is named after my dad and my husband, Jimmy, he never met my dad, but he often, like he has dreams and he said, like he isn't fully awake sometimes. And he comes and tells me like, you know, in the dream, I am Papa sometimes. And sometimes he's showing me things. And he tells me things like about the night he passed.
And like, it's crazy. But you do think like, I think there is this spiritual connection that we can't really verbalize or experience to a certain level on earth. But little ones sometimes are tapped into that and they can remember or even though my dad didn't meet, you know, two of my kids as well, he knows them. You know, I know he, I just know, it's like a knowing that he knows them. And I feel like you feel the same way with like your mom and, you know, Gigi for your kids and keeping that, that like communication alive and keeping that that relationship alive.
It's still there and you can nurture it in different ways, but you can still nurture it. I think it's a beautiful thing. I want to talk about you waking up at 3 a.m., how the book was inspired. You know, what, what did you do when you woke up? Were you writing? You know, tell us a little about the story of Are You Here and how that came to be.
Jenny: I guess we probably should have started with that.
Christine: No, we can go into the other part.
Travis: You know, the listeners who don't know your mom, it's like, it's important to kind of preface and just like set the stage for...
Jenny: I know, but we were talking so much about Are You Here, but now we can really talk about it.
Christine: Oh, we're gonna really talk. Yeah, we're gonna really talk about it. And I think I love the title because that is something that resonates with every person that ever lost a loved one. You're always wanting that sign or that reassurance, like, are you here with me? Even if you believe they are here with you, in those moments, you're like doing something really difficult. And you're like, are you here with me?
And like, in your knowingness, you can say, yes, I know you are, but that is a constant thought that you have. Like, I just want to make sure you're here with me. Like, you need a reassurance in the signs and the little things that God kind of reveals to us to remind us that they are with us, I think is a powerful, powerful sentiment to follow that up, that question that is so common among all of us.
Jenny: I know, I feel like to be human, right, is to have doubts, right? If we didn't have doubts, I don't know if we could, yeah. I think that those questionings and the not maybe knowing for some people the not knowing or the knowing and then falling in and out of it, because I feel like I can kind of live there sometimes. It's like I'm so positive one moment and then yes, I question it, especially in the challenging moments of my life, I question more and doubt more.
Travis: Doubt also kind of lives on the other side of the coin from faith. You know, it's very, if you don't have faith, sometimes you're filled with doubt.
Jenny: So yeah, I think, yeah, then right, like being consistent in your faith and your prayer can really help. And I do feel when I'm disconnected from that is obviously when my doubts come in.
Christine: Yeah, believing in the love that you can't see, that's faith, you know, at its core. And I think that's the common ground of people that have hope. They believe in the love that they can't see, even when they have doubts, they come back to that belief that their love that I can't see is surrounding me. It is supporting me, even though I can't touch it and feel it and see it the same way I did. So I think it's beautiful. And I think your openness and your sharing, your experience is really empowering to other people.
So let's continue to get into this, how you wrote it and how it came to be.
Jenny: So I have to say, yes, in that moment, I was the most connected to God that I have, I feel like I have ever been. I had just been on a retreat, Joe Dispenza. He is someone that I look up to and kind of changed my life when I became aware of him.
He's a New York Times bestselling author. He was a chiropractor in his earlier days, and now he does lectures and he has these retreats, but he's connecting spirituality and science. And it's really a beautiful thing that he does because there's so many people that have been healed through his work. And I've been to, I think, four retreats now. And in 2023, I went there with the intention to connect to my mom and the first lady that I met on the beach as I was walking to the opening ceremony.
Travis: Her mom passed in 2018. So this is five years, roughly.
Jenny: Yes. After. So the first lady that I met was carrying these children's books, and we had a beautiful conversation, and she was telling me that she loved reading children's books, not to kids, but for herself because it brought her so much joy. And so she gifted me one, and I'm like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. I have four kids at home. I can't wait to bring it home to read to them. So I took it, didn't even look at it, put it in my suitcase. And then I continued with the retreat. I felt really connected to my mom during the whole retreat.
We were driving, I was driving back up from the retreat, and I was reading a book called Signs by Laura Lynn Jackson, which is an adult version. I think of my children's book, Are You Here? Because it talks about all the beautiful unexpected signs that you receive from your loved ones if you just ask for it.
And so I was like, “okay, mom, an owl.” Like she loved owls. She before she passed, she went to this owl workshop and she learned how to call for an owl. So that's what we do now as a family when we're outside. Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?
It's like, who cooks for you? Who cooks for y'all?
Travis: A little behind the scenes, her family lives in this development. There's natural springs and there's deer and bears daily. And so there's just so much wildlife and it's just beautiful.It's just gorgeous. It's like you live in the forest basically. So anytime that we were outside, she would call for the hours.
She's like, who cooks for you? Who cooks for y'all? She loves animals. It's so crazy because sometimes you hear, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, you know, off in the distance, we're like, oh my God, that really works. That's crazy.
Jenny: Yeah, she's like seeing black bears in our backyard and trying to take pictures with them. Like, it scared me.
Christine: She's like Cinderella.
Jenny: For a moment there, I'll come to her. We had every animal growing up when we were little too, so God bless her because she made us have, or she let us have turtles and rabbits and chickens. Anyways.
Travis: So she asked for the sign.
Jenny: So I asked for the sign of an owl. And I get home and I'm like, oh kids, I was so excited to see them first of all. Again, I had never felt so connected to God after that retreat. I almost compare it to when my mom passed. I don't know if you had this feeling, but after your dad passed, I could see colors more bright than I'd ever seen before. I was so present.
I was like… I could just, I feel like I was almost close to the other realm, just in the presence of my soul. I wasn't worried about the house being messed up. I didn't care about any of the tiny little things that before I left, I was a little bit more worried about. I had no fears. I had no fears. I was living in this beautiful, pure white light.
Anyway, so I got home and I'm like, kids come, let me read this book to you that I was gifted at the retreat. And I open it up. It's called Maybe. I start reading it. And the girl has an owl hat on. And there's beautiful owl illustrations all throughout the book. And it's by Kobi Yamada called Maybe. And it's a book about your life's potential. And it was like, I knew right then. I started crying because the kids were getting distracted. Didn't want to read it.
Travis: Yeah, I was about to say, we should pause because the kids are so excited that she was home because it had been like five or six days. And so they're going wild. And they're not really like listening to Jenny read this story. So she's just kind of like zoning out, reading this story while the kids are running around.
Jenny: So then I, yeah, like get immersed in the story. And all of a sudden I'm just bawling. And I'm like, my mom sent that lady to give me this message. I just know it. And I'm like outside, walking around my pool in the backyard. And I'm crying. I'm like, “Thank you, mom. Thank you, mom.” And this book is just so beautiful. The message of like, I knew that was what my mom was wanting for me for my life is to find my dream and to follow it and to pursue it and chase it.
And like anything is possible. My mom was always so positive growing up. She would give me, you know, cards and books that with affirmations. And anyways, so I'm like, oh my god, so that in that moment, “I'm like, oh my gosh, this book is so inspiring. I love it. I'm going to put it up on the mantle.”
Then I was so in a place of creativity after that retreat, because I think like creativity is a channel to to God. And so I went to a dance class one night, probably a couple of days later, I went to a dance class. I got home, I danced for one of my sweet friends, her partner had passed away during the retreat.
So during that retreat too, I drove up to this celebration of life for this man. So that night at the dance class, I dedicated the dance to him. And I was still, I felt so connected to God. And it was that night that I got home and I fell asleep and at 3 a.m.
Travis: And a quick, quick pause. Sure. So she, we've been together at this point. It was like eight years, eight or nine years. And she has seen me wake up in the morning and I'll have an idea for a song. And I'll go and I'll grab my phone and I'll turn the voice memo on and be like, you know, whatever, and I'll sing a melody or, you know, lyrics or whatever it is. And I'll put it back down. I'll go pass out.
So she she knows that like, I'll randomly basically have like a dream song idea, wake up, put it on my voice memo, and then, you know, listen to it the morning of, in the morning, sometimes it's amazing. A lot of times it's just like, you can't even, it's inaudible. So, so it was amazing because she had one of these moments
Jenny: Well, Joe just tells us to like in his retreats that during the hours of three and five, I think it is, it's like when you are most connected to God, like those are the, those are the, that's the time where you will receive messages because you're in silence. And that's when you can receive all the questions, the answers to all the questions that you have. So I woke up at 3 a.m. and these words started flowing to me.
First of all, because I was still thinking about my mom and you know, really wanting to believe that yes, all the signs that she had sent to me after she had passed were truly from her. And so, yes, these words started flowing. I would go back to sleep.
I would wake up and write more back to sleep. And in the morning, I showed it to Travis and he took those words up to his studio. And that night, he came down and was like, Jenny, sit on the couch. I made a song to those words. And I literally, again, first, I cried so much after I received that book, maybe, and then after he played that song, I was just in tears for very long time. And that was my healing.
Like those two instances were my healing. I didn't know that I needed healing. Like I think a lot of the times, like we don't know that we need it. Like I felt okay. Like I wasn't missing my mom 24 hours a day, you know, like when she first passed, it was like, you know, it would come in waves, but I didn't know that I needed that healing. It was beyond like the moment that I knew that I was holding on to some things. And I don't think grieving is, it's not linear, right? So it's gonna come in waves. And so anyways, he showed me the song.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I was crying, we were like talking about it. Like, should we switch this? Should we do this?
Travis: And she's never like written a book before. She's never written a song before. And so I wanted to keep it pretty much exactly how she had it in honor of her and honor of her mom. And all I did was I took one section that she had and I turned it into like, we'll call it a chorus, right? So it's the part of a song for people who don't know song structures and formats. That's the part that you repeat, you know?
So it was, I took this part and I was like, okay, that could be the verse. And then it went into this thing that I called the chorus, put that and then it went to the second verse. And then the chorus was repeated and I showed her the song and she just was very emotional, but in a beautiful way.
And I loved that. I loved that I was able to help her heal, you know, in a time that she didn't know that she needed it. And that kind of led her into this thought process of like, oh my God, like, what if my mom's story, what if my story with my mom, what if that could help other people heal?
Jenny: Yeah, we sat with it for a year, the words and the song.
Christine: Oh really? So did you put, so this song, when I first heard it, like I was crying. It's so beautiful and it's like, it just touches the hearts of everyone who've ever lost someone and like have experienced signs or do have that connection and that hope. And it's just like, it's very, the melody is amazing. I send it out to everybody because I'm like, oh, you have to listen to this. Because there's not a lot of uplifting songs about grief, to be honest. Like, when you're looking to kind of put a playlist together, I was doing that last year when we're doing a Memory Mile or whatever. There's not a lot of songs that really give you hope in the grief. They talk about the pain and they address all these, we're never going to see each other again.
But I think the thing that's different about yours is that it's a continuation. It's a new way of knowing they're here and connecting with them. And I just, your mom's so cute, she gave you guys this little shared gift. She gave you the words and then Travis produced, it's so sweet. And it's like a gift she gave to both of you to kind of create this beautiful gift that you're giving to the world. And it's amazing sometimes when you think about it, you're like, wow, God is amazing.
And this is amazing that we were able to be strong enough to do it because there's some vulnerability and it's really hard to kind of share your story with people. But also tackling those tough feelings and then having the courage to share your faith in a way, it's really inspiring to so many people.
Jenny: So I listen to the song all the time, and I think it's amazing, and I'm so excited to kind of share it even more with the world through the podcast and when you're coming to the luncheon, and just kind of let's roll into how the, so the book, the words in the song are sitting with you, it sounds like, for a year, and then how did you move forward, and what was the next step, and then how did the book kind of come to life too?
Yeah, so again, Travis was like, I felt like I was doing a disservice to humanity if I kept this to myself, when it created so much healing in me. So I was just sitting at his beach house on Anna Maria one morning before everybody got up, and I'm like, I just had this idea, I'm like, what if I turned it into a children's book? And I probably have the voice memo from, you know, 2024, of me saying it out loud to see how it would sound, the cadence of it, and then my kids got up and I'm like, “oh my gosh, what do you guys think if I turned this into a children's book? Do you think it'd be cool?” And they're like, yes, mommy, of course, or whatever.
Travis: And then the voice memo, she's like, “Are you here? Did you hear my, like reading it as if she was reading it to like a class of kid, it was really cute.
Jenny: Anyway, so I don't even know, but I, oh, because, sorry, I went to a retreat, another Joe to Spends a Retreat in 2024, and I had met a girl. She placed a seed, I think, in my mind, because she had told me that she had written a children's book about thunder, and she wrote it in like five minutes, and she got this message, and she wrote it, and she was self-publishing her own book, and I had met her just a week before at the next retreat that I was at. And so I think that was planted in my head too, because I'm like, oh my gosh, “She did this. What if I could do this?” And so it started with that idea, and then my friend in California, Nicole Sciacca, wrote a children's book called Yolked. I had known that, so I texted her.
I said, what are even the steps of, how do I even start this process? And so she connected me to the publisher, Landon & Hail Press, and it kind of just flowed really easily. And I do think that when you're connected and that you're vibrating your highest consciousness, you're not working hard to create, right? It's like this flow and you're excited and it's happening really effortlessly. And that's just how it really felt to this whole process. I know it was divinely orchestrated.
So then from there, yes, I had to find an illustrator and I knew in my heart who it was gonna be all along, but I was exploring other options because she was going through a hard time. She lost her dad like a year before, but she was going through a difficult time with something else.
And I was like, I don't know if she can do it or she'd have the capacity to, but she ended up being able to and she was like, “I really am inspired by it.”
And so she took it on and worked really hard to get it out and get it completed because we had a publishing date of March 17th, 2025. That was the day that my mom went to heaven.
Travis: And the anniversary of the day.
Jenny: Yes. And so I was really tied to that date. But then things kind of started to not flow as easily anymore, which is okay. There were some challenges that came and that date wasn't the date anymore. So here we are. And it's going to be out March 17th of 2026 now, which is still a really beautiful date, obviously. And it's connected to that.
Travis: But we just, we really, and by we, I mean, Jenny. But the overall process, we were like, okay, well, the song, if we release this here, it just felt like we were rushing something that was really important to her legacy to get it right, and to really like not cut corners and really make it as special because it really does have the chance to heal millions of people within the song and within the book.
And sometimes, and I've known this with music, sometimes when you rush it, it's just not the right thing to do. I know you get excited and you're like, no, no, no, let's push it. Let's get it out. And then a couple months after, you're like, I should have probably done it a little differently. So this, it feels like was always the way that it was going to be and meant to be.
Jenny: And I keep trying to surrender to that too, you know, to surrender to what God has in store for this and asking my mom to still be in this fully because she was so in it. And I know she still is, but it was like I said, flowing so easily at the beginning. And then we hit some roadblocks even just in our family life and personal life that, you know, added some speed bumps. And the fact that we did it through the challenges… I'm proud of ourselves for sure.
Christine: Yeah, that's the humanity of the process. You know, it's never perfect journey, but you have to enjoy the journey, even though, you know, it's navigating with you as you're moving to Nashville now and, you know, starting a new chapter and then the book's going to be the next, you know, next chapter. And I think that something's going to just completely, you know, the way it's going to be shared with the world is the way it's meant to be shared with the world. And I think it's all going to come together in the most beautiful way.
Travis: With something like this, if it heals, it helps the healing process of one person, just one person, then it's 100% worth it. You know, even if it doesn't, like the fact that it healed you and helped heal parts of your sisters and your family and my family, like, if it's like that's, there's really no expectation, right? It's, you did this because it healed you and it hopes that it could heal somebody else.
Christine: But exactly, that's exactly why I started, why I started too, and why I was so drawn to your story too. It's like your personal experience is something that is personal, but also you want to share with others. And Together at Peace is like a big bucket where it's like, we share the stories of all the people that have found these healing ways. And what has healed you is helpful to someone else. And maybe it's not, but maybe it is. And that's what the beauty of it is.
Everyone joining together in this bucket of hope, in this bucket of remembrance and finding resilience together. I think that's very powerful. And I think you have a resource that can be used by so many. I know that once the hospitals and the partners get a copy of your book, the requests are going to come in. So it's just empowering people with tools and sharing your heart and being inspired by the world, too, is going to create even more beautiful things out of what is already in motion. And I think I want to learn more about what is your vision.
I know you have a little bit of a Facebook community, too. How do you navigate the Facebook community and what you're doing? I think you did an in-person reading, because you're so sweet. And just like a little, you have this little educational teacher vibes. I mean, I used to be a teacher, too. So I have a whole curriculum idea with schools. And we work closely with, we're working with a children's book, actually helping educate about life support and love support, because in the hospitals, a lot of kids are really scared when their family member goes on life support. So there's a lot of synergies between the things that we do that I think we can create a lot of beautiful things, in addition to sharing all this amazing things with the world.
Jenny: I loved kids growing up. I don't know about you, but I've always been attracted to kids and serving. I actually served at New Hope for Kids in Orlando. It's a grieving center. And realizing this now is full circle for me, because I would go there and I would connect with these kids that have lost a loved one. And for me, my hope and my goal is that these centers can use this as a tool for their grief. And I don't think it's just for young kids.
I think adults can read this book and be connected to it. Teenagers, the illustrations are so beautiful. They're not kid-like illustrations. I mean, I think it could vary across the board who connects with it.
Travis: Yeah. And going back to what you said in the beginning, where even for the namesake, the title, Are You Here? It's something that even as adults, you have these moments in life, kind of like these trigger points that something happens and you feel that maybe that weight of sadness or the grief. Like it's again, it's not linear. It's the ebb and flow of, again, proof of the love they had.
But the title, Are You Here? is something that is so deep and it's, and my obviously I'm biased because she's my wife, but reading this book, it's like those movies that are made for kids, that they talk about these things that, it goes over their head, but the parents is like, you're just sitting here like, “oh my God, that's like such a beautiful sentiment and how beautifully said” was this line that was from, like a warthog or something like that in a movie. So I think that sentiment of are you here is something so powerful that it does transcend just being a children's book.
Christine: 100%. I think even gifting this children's book to an adult is a beautiful gesture because you're speaking to the most fundamental essence of our being, which is like the love that you are craving and wanna find a“sign from. So I think that it speaks to all ages. I mean, anyone could receive this book and feel more hopeful and a little bit of comfort from the world, from your heart to theirs. And it's a beautiful thing. And together with the song as well, it's just, and you guys are just living, you're living proof of like, you are really genuinely like feeling it and sharing it.
And I think that's the most powerful part of the whole thing. So thank you for-
Jenny: Yes, my vision is just like, yes, getting it to as many people and organizations that could benefit from it in a human.
Christine: I love that. I love that. And as you guys are both like raising your beautiful children and navigating your musician life and how you're going to bring this to the world, what are the ways you kind of remember your mom in certain rituals or things she loved, you baked cookies that she made, or what are the things that you guys kind of do to remember Gigi together?
Jenny: Okay, well-
Travis: So many.
Jenny: Yeah, there's so many.
Travis: How much time do you have?
Jenny: Every day, I feel like we talk about her all the time, but-
Travis: Recipes is a good one. Sticky buns.
Jenny: She loves sticky buns. So my sister for Christmas got us all a cutting board with her handwriting of the recipe, and that's what we make for Christmas and Easter, because she would always make that for the holidays. Then obviously, the ladybug for us is huge, and my kids, every time they see a ladybug, the ladybugs fly on them. They're just obsessed with ladybugs, and it's Gigi, and it's so beautiful.
Travis: I have a full blown conversation with Gigi right there, with a ladybug sitting on their arm.
Jenny: And I have the craziest story about a ladybug, and my mom, specific to me. I got in a really big fight with my dad one day, and I was crying in the car, and I was at Costco, and I walked into Costco, and I'm just crying in line. And this lady taps me on the shoulder, and she's like, “You have a ladybug on your shoulder.”
And I look down, and I just start bawling again. And I'm like, “It's my mom, it's my mom, it's my mom.” And so I took a picture of it, and the lady was like the same age as my mom, and just her whole essence. She was like, “Can I give you a hug?” And I'm like, “yes” and she gave me a hug. And yeah, I got back in the car, and I'm like, “thank you, mom. I needed that.” I know you'd be on my side of this fight, mom. You were here. So I think she was just telling me, right? Like she was telling me like, “Jenny, it's okay, you know?”
So yeah, I loved that at that time, that for my mom, I love her the most.
Travis: Yeah, she was always like a big proponent of...
Jenny: Oh, keeping the family like...
Travis: What matters most is family. Yeah, together.
Christine: Well, you're honoring her with this book, and you know, there's so many things. I know, like for my, like I think about my dad every day, obviously, he's been gone for 21 years, but it's like still, you just, it's just part of you now, you know? Like they were such a big part of your life, but now they're like part of you and everything like you do every day.
It's like, if someone doesn't know that my dad passed away, I don't know, they don't really know me, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, it's this thing that you carry around because it's such a big, you know, loss, but it's such a big, like part of you too. So, yeah, I totally know what you mean. It's like every little thing is part of your every day. And you sharing this book and the song with the world is just part of it all and part of remembering her, and that's her legacy too.
Jenny: Thank you. I know I just wanted to start because you just reminded me of something because my mom didn't didn't talk about her mom when she passed. She was holding pain like so strongly for the passing of her mom that she never spoke about her after she passed. And I could see what she was carrying. You know, she lost her mom, her sister and her best friend like right before she passed. And so I think that was weighing really heavy on her.
Christine: Yeah, yeah. No, I think like for me, when my dad passed, one of the motivators was I didn't want my kids to only see my pain. I wanted them to see like a celebration of my dad's love and like have a new relationship with them, even though it was so hard for me.
You know what I mean? Like letting them see my pain and my tears is part of it. But then also letting them see my healing and my hope, I thought was really important. Like in case whenever I pass away, you know what I mean? Like helping them have this like relationship with grieving that feels more hopeful and not so painful and devastating and shutting you down. So I'm talking about those things.
And I think it's interesting too, like even though your mom maybe didn't talk about her mom as much, her mom probably had a similar light and was like some of the things your mom did was honoring her. And so like internally it was hopeful, but it was probably hard for her to articulate some of that because it wasn't really common. And now it's becoming more, people are talking about it a little bit more.
Travis: I was going to say that it's a different period where, like, I don't know, you're just more transparent. Maybe it's because we're growing up in a world where everything's kind of online, so all of our emotions and they are posting everything about themselves as transparent. So maybe we're just more transparent. Maybe we're okay with having these conversations that are difficult, whereas our parents and their parents and their parents thought that their strength lied in hiding, protecting us by not talking about or show any pain that they were going through.
Jenny: I don't want that.
Christine: Being strong, that's how they kind of wanted to present themselves, like being strong and not acknowledging it at all, really.
Travis: I wanted to say there's a really crazy thing on the day that she passed, or was actually a couple of days all the way leading up to it. But there were these three deer that came and were right outside of her window because she was at her family's home. And you're talking about Gigi, or Mom Bears, her mom, her sister and her best friend had all passed before her. So these three deer, like again, I mentioned earlier that like they live in, you know, like the backyard is basically a nature preserve. So there's deer and there's bear, but these three deer were not like any other, right?
Jenny: Like they were laying still.
Travis: They were just laying there.
Jenny: In front of the window.
Travis: Right in front of the window.
Jenny: And they've never laid there since then. Like I've never seen three deer. I've asked my dad too, like have you seen three deer lay right here?
Travis: It was just such an abnormality for deer. They get spooked really easy. You know, there were a lot of people coming in and out of the house and they just stayed there. And then the morning that she passed, they left. Like wow.
Christine: Look at the chills.
Jenny: The line is, I see a deer lying still. Then I start to get the chills.
Christine: So I have the chills right now.
Jenny: Every sign in the book is a sign.
Christine: Oh, so you have it right there. Yeah. Can you show us if we? Oh, I'm so excited. Very first sample of it. So it's going to be a little bit different, but yes. Oh my gosh. Well, I am just like, feel so blessed to have met you both and to have you here and have you a part of Together at Peace Community and coming to the Sparkle of Hope luncheon is truly like a dream come true for me to just be able to share something so beautiful with our community. Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your story and your mom and all of these beautiful things you have in store for the world. Eventually when the book comes out, where can they find you? How can they follow you?
Can you share your website and ways to communicate?
Jenny: Yeah, of course. Jennyrobinsonclark.com is the website for the book and there too, you can stream Are You Here on any platform. It just has the links right there.
Travis: Yeah, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, YouTube, everywhere, really.
Jenny: And we have the Facebook community, which you spoke about briefly and I never touched on it, sorry. But yes, I created a Facebook community around this book, where I really want people to be able to feel safe and seen there and to be able to go and speak about the losses that they have endured and to speak about their loved ones. And I wanted my kids to be involved because I want them to draw pictures and I wanted to post pictures there too, to get children involved with the beautiful signs that they see. So that's continuing to grow. And I'm excited to see where that goes and I hope it becomes a large community of people that can just share their stories.
Travis: There's also… I'd be remiss if I didn't bring it up, but there's a beautiful faith-based film that's coming out at the end of the year. It's called The One. And when we were, again, we were kind of sitting on this song, we were just praying like, you know, like for God to kind of give us like some opportunity or some guidance and direction of what to do with this. And Jenny gets a text from our friends and they're like, hey, do you have any music that would fit this song or this movie about a boy who loses his-
Jenny: Well, they sent us the script. So yeah, I haven't talked to this person a very long time and the day that I was like, God, please show me, like, where do you want this? Like, what do you want for this? And then I got a text from someone from Los Angeles that I had known and he was a producer of this film. And he's like, do you think Travis has any music that could fit a movie that I'm working on? And I'm like, “okay, send me the script.” So we sent the script and we were reading it. And I'm like, “oh my God, I was just getting chills the whole time reading it. I'm like, it's, “Are You Here?” I know that's the song that they want.
Travis: Immediately she was like, it's gotta be that, this is it. There's no way. I was just praying about this, this has to be it. And I was kind of reserved. I was like, well, let's send this.
Jenny: Yeah, I didn't think like he wanted to send it. I'm like, babe, it's that song. Please send it. Like, I know it's that song.
Travis: And then fast forward, it is the title song. The kid, the main character learns how to play that song on acoustic guitar. And then he sings that song in the movie. And then it plays at the end of the movie. It's just, it's the biggest song of the movie. And the film is just so beautifully done and...
Christine: Wow, I'm excited.
Travis: Check that out.
Jenny: Divinely orchestrated again. Yeah.
Christine: I love that. Yeah. Yeah.
Jenny: Like asking, are you here? Which I think is a beautiful perspective with the book, too. Like those that maybe are questioning if God is here in us and all around us.
Christine: Well, I kind of feel, too, like, you know, they're one. So like, God is love and our loved ones are with him. So like, he reveals the signs to us. You know, there's all this talk about the new age thing. I'm definitely more on the faith. You know, I'm Catholic and a Christian and I love all of the, you know, I love all of the signs, but I also believe that, you know, they're one with God and God is revealing them to us, too.
You know, so I think there's just like a beautiful synergy between like your music and then being part of that community of faith. That's also inspiring belief in the faith, in the love that we all kind of experience and share. I'm so excited.
I'm so excited for that film to come out and the music to be... Are you playing it at your concerts, too? Like the songs, do you ever perform it?
Travis: We are. So the tour just ended, but Jenny filmed me playing at Soundcheck at Madison Square Garden for the tour. And I don't know, I just played it at Soundcheck and she videoed. And you could see like all the retired jerseys from the players that went to the Hall of Fame and all the concert posters from all the greatest acts ever that have played on that very stage. Just such a beautiful experience. But yes, ultimately, we do play it live and it just gets such a beautiful. At the end, I kind of repeat the, you are here, you are here, maybe three or four times and the crowd starts singing it. And it's just like, it is so touching and overwhelmingly emotional. It's just such a cool thing.
Jenny: That might be the second book too.
Christine: Wow. Yeah, I think there's many in here and many more songs too. Well, I am just one with you and the healing music and arts and beautiful books and all of that. And I'm so grateful for you joining me today.
If anyone has experienced a loss or needs extra support, please reach out, join our community, join Jenny's community, follow Travis and Jenny as they, you know, share their beautiful gifts with the world. We are so grateful that we had this time today.
Narrator: Thank you for spending time with us today. If this episode brought you comfort or hope, we'd be so grateful if you share it with someone who needs it. Sign up for our newsletter at Together at Peace dot org or follow us on social media to stay connected, hear about upcoming events and receive encouragement for your journey.
We're honored to walk with you.
From Together at Peace Podcast: Together at Peace Podcast - Episode 12: “Are You Here?” – A Conversation on Love, Loss & Signs That Stay with Jenny & Travis Clark, Jul 23, 2025 This material is protected by copyright.
