Friday, April 4, 2008
Eat, Pray, Love

A friend of mine said she thought this book might be too preachy for her. After finishing it I have decided it is VERY close to being too preachy, but there are so many fantastic passages and quips along the way which make the soap box dialogue worth it.

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote Eat, Pray, Love as a sort of personal memoir. She went through a bitter divorce and decided to trek across the world for self-realization purposes. The entire book is about her journeys; what she ate, where she prayed, who she loved and every step in between. The full title of the books is: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

Her time in Italy came first and so she was in the frame of mind which I found comical at times. She wanted to experience nothing but pleasure and for her it meant eating a lot of Italian food and learning the language. She spoke about sex from time to time but the divorce and all the lawyer business had left her wanting to spend an entire year in celibacy.

The people she met in Italy help her to see she needs to let go of her pre-determined notions of guilt and realize she is allowed to seek happiness and pleasure without cause. She can enjoy herself at anytime and not just after a long week of work. There is a lot of talk which compares the Italian way of life to that of an American way of life. I didn't think of anything she said before hand, but after reading it I couldn't agree more. Quickly, Elizabeth Gilbert's journey was becoming my own.

After several months in Italy she went on to India. Her stay in India was far more about prayer than anything else. She attempted silence and she lived in a retreat which focused purely on spiritual meditation. She became friends with some great people, gurus as she called them, and she found how to meditate, relax and be comfortable in her own skin. During the end of her stay in India she started to step out of the self-mode and into remembering she can help other people around her, too.

Next was Indonesia where she continued sharing herself with the world instead of just taking everything in. She made great friends including a woman who is a healer. The healer and Elizabeth ended up helping each other immensely. This is also the location in which she found love again.

There are 352 pages, so I'm leaving a lot out, obviously. But I did very much enjoy it and I found myself talking about it with everyone I encountered during the week. It impacted me profoundly in many ways. I do have a problem with how self righteous she spoke at times, but I understand it because this was her journey, her memoir and not mine.

Very good. Many "ahhh" and "light bulb" moments. =o)

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