February Audiobook: A Return to Love

February's audiobook was A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson.

After learning about this book, I saved it to listen to on my road trip to Jacksonville. It was a short audiobook, only about three and half hours. Listening to it, I understood one reason why it was short. The author narrates at a brisk pace. There is a lot of good information put out but she does not slow down even though its a lot to take in. That's fine, I'll listen to it again later. I think the pace of the narration has to do with the author being from New York (they talk faster up there) and the original recording being in the early 90s made for cassette tape (they seemed to talk faster back then).

Beyond the technical, the substance of this book is deep. The author describes how her life was changed by A Course in Miracles. She found healing in these principles of love. After her life was changed, she lived what she learned. Eventually, she began writing, lecturing, and counseling based on the material.

The essential elements to the material is the power of love and how we all can find peace through loving ourselves, others, and the world around us.

It is fashionable to post positive quotes daily on social media. Many people do it and your feed can quickly become overwhelmed. Sometimes, I don't get why someone would post a picture of themselves drinking at the beach and then put a spiritual quote underneath. Anyway...

One of the few quotes that I saved on my phone (from social media) was one of the first I saw. Months later I realized it was from Marianne Williamson and it came from A Return to Love.

Spa Day

Recently, I took a trip to Jacksonville to visit family. It was a short trip, less than a week, and my first days away from Ethan not dictated by work. Like I said, it was a short trip and I took the time to relax with family before travelling back home with my mother so that she could spend time at our house to visit.

The only thing we had planned was to go to a spa. I had never been to a spa before and have been complaining about stiff muscles in my back for years. My sister recommended several locations. After some deliberation, we decided to try out a place that she had never been before but heard good things about.

I never had a massage so we both booked a massage package at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club Spa. Along with the massage package, we got access to the facility including the cafe, pool, hot tubs, saunas, and lounge. I'm glad that I went with someone who's been to a place like that before. I didn't realize that I would have access to the whole place with the purchase of my package. I thought that was a separate deal and I would have just showed up for my scheduled appointment and left.

Our massage package included three separate sessions in the afternoon. We showed up around noon and had two hours to lounge around, eat and relax.

Laying in the Sun poolside was about all the excitement I was interested in. Did I mention I took my first spinning class the day before and had another cardio day before that? 

I guess the secret is to roll up one of the towels into a pillow.

No swimming for me. It was warm outside but cool in the pool. I wasn't in the mood to swim in cool water.

 We ordered lunch poolside. I had the turkey melt with veggie chips and my sister had the seasoned shrimp wrap with berries. 

I expected a $20 sandwich to be good and it was. I guess that's fine since water, coffee, tea, and fruit were all complimentary.

You can also see that it wasn't crowded at all. We picked a good day to go. 

Like I mentioned above, this was supposed to be part of a few days of relaxing. I'm glad I scheduled this beforehand. Since we didn't schedule anything else, I ended up going to the gym twice for cardio and going on a nature hike. All that exercise was in two days, one of which was the day I drove to Jacksonville. I guess my version of relaxing and taking it easy includes going to the gym and sweating. 

This was a completely new experience and is something I think that I'll do again eventually. I left here feeling good and had no complaints. Yes, there were other men here that day. I think that I counted three, including myself. 

January Audiobook II: The Untethered Soul

Since I finished my last book in early January, I had a chance to finish a second one. You may have read the end of my last blog post where I realized that I had been reading some of Oprah's favorite spiritual books by coincidence. After I wrote that blog post, I figured, "what the heck" and added several more to my Audible wishlist.

The next one I listened to was The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer.

While still on the book, I saw posts on Instagram or other social media which recommended spiritual books. Of the several I saw, this book was on them near the top.

While books like The Power of Now could be helpful to beginners and masters, The Untethered Soul would be great for people beginning their spiritual journey of self-discovery. While I have heard much of what this book has to say, whether I heard the philosophy through Youtube videos or read in articles, this book goes into great detail and explanation of how to master your mind, thoughts, feelings, and view on life, both external, and more importantly, internal.