The Divorce Ceremony

Book excerpt: How to connect fully with Spirit by letting go of Ego and inviting love, compassion, and forgiveness into your heart… In the late 90s, Patricia Ann Russell and her soon-to-be ex-husband mailed 400 invitations for their Divorce Ceremony to family, friends, and acquaintances. Over 100 of them came, including their three teenage children, caterers, photographers, a DJ, and their in-laws. Especially important for Patricia was that her father, who had not visited her from their native Bahamas since she’d moved away 25 years earlier—and where he’d originally walked her down the aisle—came to take her back. In a world that’s accustomed to bitter and angry divorces, Patricia’s father had never imagined two people with great respect and love for each other going their separate ways with a ceremony. The idea is a new one, and revolutionary in its simplicity and healing power. In spite of Patricia’s best intentions to move forward, however, she struggled mightily after her divorce. The departure of her daughters for college, the gravity of her father’s advanced prostate cancer, and mounting financial stress compounded her loneliness and desperation. One night while lying in bed, exhausted from crying, praying, cursing, and screaming to God for help, Patricia heard a voice say, “Who would you rather take on your journey? Fear and Grief, or Love and Joy?” Too tired to respond, the question was difficult to ignore. And yet the answer was obvious. Patricia’s dark night of the soul was the turning point where her faith was restored and she began to understand and accept her divorce as a symbolic act of divorcing her own Ego, a prelude to its final submission to a higher authority, the spiritual Self. Until now, no other book has provided an integrated approach that enables the divorced to navigate the emotional quagmires, regardless of time. The Divorce Ceremony helps people to acknowledge their pain but not wallow in it; to understand spiritually what they’re going through; and to help them step into their greatness.