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This lengthy, semi-autobiographical tome introduces us to the author and her mentor and teacher, David R. Hawkins, who greatly impacted her view of spirituality. Readers will also meet a multitude of people, both contemporary and historical, whose lives give testimony to the book’s thesis: love is a powerful and transformative force that transcends barriers of hate and loss. It even overcomes the dogmatism and bias prevalent in many religious sects.
Grace was able to interview many of those she writes about, interweaving their philosophies with vignettes from her own experience. Those highlighted as exemplars of transformative love include Mother Teresa of India, Grandmother Mona Polacca of the International Council of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. Dedan Gills and Belvie Rooks (founders of Growing a Global Heart), yogic master Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, and Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychologist who survived the Holocaust and was able to find incidences of love even within the concentration camps.
Grace writes with a confidence and acuity that demonstrate her immersion in her subject and her zeal to share her knowledge with others. A professor of religion, she began her life as a missionary within the confines of strict religious beliefs but was led in different directions that are explored here. A same-sex relationship led to the dissolution of her marriage and the disapprobation of her co-religionists, and her meeting with Hawkins reset her thinking and helped her discern the essence of true love that is self-giving, humble, and nonselective. Her explorations are eclectic, with Catholicism and mystical Eastern religions in the foreground, and her devotion to her personal teacher providing a key component to her belief system. With its far-reaching examination of the qualities that comprise love at its highest levels, her book may offer inspiration and guidance to a wide audience of spiritual seekers.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review