At the beginning of each month, we spotlight a staff-favorite book that meets our objective of sharing thoughtful stories to help our audience experience their world in a smarter, healthier, and happier way.

September’s Book of the Month is:

A Return to Love

What is it?

“The mega-bestselling spiritual guide in which Marianne Williamson shares her reflections on A Course in Miracles and her insights on the application of love in the search for inner peace.

Williamson reveals how we each can become a miracle worker by accepting God and by the expression of love in our daily lives. Whether psychic pain is in the area of relationships, career, or health, she shows us how love is a potent force, the key to inner peace, and how by practicing love we can make our own lives more fulfilling while creating a more peaceful and loving world for our children.”

– Amazon.com description

What Marianne Williamson is getting at here is that fear hides our inner light, but that when we embrace love―which is how she defines God―we connect with who we are really meant to be. I have never been more moved by a book than I am by this one.

O Magazine

What are our thoughts?

“An interesting book, for sure. There were moments where I was put off because of the very frequent usage of terms like “God” and “Christ” as well as an approach to serious illness (she used AIDS as her example) that didn’t sit right with me.

I am giving four stars, however, because there is a plethora of wonderful and powerful quotes and concepts that really help in shifting perspective towards a more universal love and acceptance.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is even just slightly curious about a more positive approach to looking at both themselves and life as a whole.”

GoodReads review by The Motley Experience founder and editor, Aristidis Marousas.

Why should you read it?

Marianne Williamson has been in the news lately because of her unique positioning as a presidential candidate for the Democrats. Her approach is based on universal love and acceptance, which has gained her criticism and even mockery from a good deal of the main stream.

It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.

A Return to Love

While this post is not intended to be political, it is interesting to get to understand Marianne’s way of thinking through reading her books.

A Return to Love might be her most recognized piece of work.

Depending on your spiritual or religious preferences, Marianne’s frequent usage of the term “God” may be off putting. If you are able to look past this and understand that, to her, God and love are essentially interchangeable terms, you will come to understand her writing on a much deeper level.

We are not held back by the love we didn’t receive in the past, but by the love we’re not extending in the present.

A Return to Love

We are recommending this book to our readers because Marianne Williamson offers a perspective on life and living that, while sharing similarities with thought leaders such as Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra, is unique in its exultation of love as being the true key to unlocking humanity’s greatest potential.

Something amazing happens when we surrender and just love. We melt into another world, a realm of power already within us. The world changes when we change. the world softens when we soften. The world loves us when we choose to love the world.

A Return to Love

We certainly found it to be an interesting read and found many gems scattered throughout the book that have helped us reevaluate our perceptions. It even inspired the writing of the article There is No Peace Through Anger.

Happy Reading!