At Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif., (l. to r.) bookseller Karyn McNicoll posed with Arielle Ford--who launched the tour for her new book, Wabi Sabi Love: The Ancient Art of Finding Perfect Love in Imperfect Relationships (HarperOne), at one of her favorite independent bookstores--and her friend Marci Shimoff, whose paperback of Love for No Reason: 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love was released that day by Free Press. Ford, the former publicist who helped make Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and her sister Debbie Ford into household names, helped people around the world find love in her first book, The Soulmate Secret, based on her own experience manifesting a mate.
During the event, Ford shared how her second book grew out of the honest answer to a question Ford asked herself: "If I married my soulmate, then why do I want to kill him sometimes?" Because, she realized, she possessed no "partnership skills." So, she started to apply the Japanese concept of wabi sabi--finding the perfect in the imperfect--to make her marriage happier and more fulfilling. As Chopra said in his blurb on the hardcover, Ford weds "ancient wisdom and modern concerns to create the formula for a sustainable, loving relationship for years to come."
Ford said her wabi sabi moment came when she realized she needed to come to terms with her husband's desire to watch sports on television. "After all, I had married a former professional basketball player," she said. (Her husband, Brian Hilliard, played pro basketball in Europe and was captain of the Oregon State Beavers.) Ford decided she would watch the last quarter of any basketball game that was important to him. To make it more interesting for herself, Ford started rooting for the littlest guy on either team. "Now I have this love for short basketball players," she said. And something she loathed became something now shared with her soulmate--Wabi Sabi Love in action.
Aside from her writing, Arielle Ford teaches and is chief of platform expansion for EvolvingWisdom.com, a personal growth company providing online transformational education. --Bridget Kinsella