"Life," according to Debbie Ford, "presents us with many opportunities to awaken to our divine nature, the highest expression of ourselves. Some people call these opportunities spiritual wake-up calls. Most of the time they appear during times of great distress. Divorce is one of these times. It is during this crisis that we have the opportunity to explore our inner world and begin the process of becoming intimate with our entire self, our light as well as our darkness." The author is a faculty member of the Chopra Center for Well Being and author of the bestseller The Dark Side of the Light Chasers.

Ford's spiritual interpretation of divorce is at odds with the debilitating, vengeful, storm-tossed, and spiteful one depicted in courtrooms across the country. She is talking about the liberation of souls not the animosity of two I'm-going-to-make-you-suffer egos. In this edifying and healing volume she presents the seven laws of spiritual divorce: acceptance, surrender, divine guidance, responsibility, choice, forgiveness, and creation. Anyone familiar with 12-Step Programs and A Course in Miracles will see the positive thrust of this approach — one that enables deeply hurt individuals to reclaim their lives and set out on a path of personal renewal.

Ford sees pain as "a sacred emotion" that can become a key to self-discovery. For her, surrender means softening the heart and taking ownership of our emotions. In order to come to terms with ourselves, we must accept those personal attributes that we have disowned and take back our projections, claiming those qualities we usually attribute to others rather than to ourselves. Forgiveness is another essential element in spiritual divorce. Ford quotes Dr. Harold Bloomfield: "Every day you don't forgive it's as if you are ingesting tiny bits of poison."

The overarching theme here is transformation — finding the alchemy of meaning and wholeness in the midst of loss, disappointment, and frustration. According to recent estimates, there are over 20 million divorced adults in America. Many of them will find this salutary book to be the medicine they need to start afresh.