The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife by Marianne Williamson

An Antidote to a Mid-Life Crises
Norma Lehmeier Hartie, Author of Harmonious Environment, 03/31/2008

If you are in midlife and not wholly happy with your life, read this book. This book is meant to empower. Marianne Williamson asks us: 'How would we live were we not afraid of death? How would we live if we felt full permission from ourselves and others to give to life everything we've got?' With those thoughts in mind, Williamson guides the reader to go after the life they want to be proactive. Only when 'we go for it' do we flourish. Midlife is what you create. We are not too old to change, if anything, with age comes knowledge, Williamson counsels. Williamson believes midlife is another stage of life and should be celebrated as such--not unlike the transition from childhood into teenager. She claims the bar or bat mitzvahs, the Jewish traditional rite of passage, is an ideal way to acknowledge the transition from childhood to adolescence, allowing the child to comes to terms with the change in life. Likewise, we need to celebrate our transition into midlife. Williamson claims that if we don't, we risk a midlife crisis, most often manifested as depression in women. She says, 'Now is the time to burst forth into your greatness--a greatness you could never have achieved without going through exactly the things you've gone through.' It's our perception of middle age that counts --not the old stereotypes. Midlife is like second chance. We learn who we are and know what we want. Midlife is the time to allow whatever it is into our lives. Author of the award winning book,Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet

A reviewer
Robert McDowell (poetrymentor@mac.com) , A reviewer, 02/16/2008

Marianne Williamson's The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife is really about that most human of dreams-- The Second Chance. All of us want to believe that we can change what we don't like about ourselves, that we can recover from past mistakes and bad breaks. If we're fortunate, we discover that all we need to become someone other than what we are resides inside us, in the beautiful, mysterious spirit. Williamson has been helping people learn this simple truth and act on it for two decades, and never has her message been more tender and personal. 'It's time to re-enchant ourselves,' she writes, and as she shares her own efforts, she makes it seem so sweet and tangible for the rest of us! I love her heartbreaking, inspiring anecdotes about her relationship with her daughter (who cannot identify with both parties when we read about a little girl who misses her mommy even when she's home?). Most of all, I love Williamson's vulnerability and her honesty. Even for her, life has created surprises that were not always wonderful. She is sadder in these pages, and more tender, and she is also more desirable and compelling than she has ever been. As we grow older, it's natural, if we still feel anything at all, to feel more vulnerable. The good news is that this is really progress and not a falling down. We learn as we age to take a little more time, which can be taking greater care with everything. We listen better, and we're not as quick on the judgment draw. We're more compassionate, and more in synch with the universe's life-giving energy. Millions of baby boomers are discovering these truths every day now, and Marianne Williamson has just presented us with our first formal acknowledgment and fabulous Guide. 'With every new thought,' she writes, 'you can work a miracle--changing your script and changing your life.' With great joy, let's get to it! -Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor, author of the forthcoming POETRY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE (Free Press, July 2008)