Wow. I finished reading this wonderful book last night: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I wish I had the money to buy all of my girlfriends a copy and drop them off at the post office to arrive in their mailboxes all at the same time. With a simple note "Read this!" attached.
I remember buying the book at an airport bookstore, right after I quit my job back in April. I read the cover and thought, huh, this is someone who dropped everything to go on a spiritual journey, through travel (Rome, India, Bali), to find God, love, and most of all herself. I should read this.
I finally started it on the flight on the way back from Munich. And I found that I couldn't put it down. Her voice is very real - like a fun, smart, self-depreciating friend - so it flows well, and you feel like you are right beside her on her journey. But I wouldn't call it an "easy" read. She talks about a lot of heavy stuff, and it provokes a lot of thought. I would find myself stopping after certain paragraphs and just thinking, finding a parallel in my life, or just grasping what she had learned.
There is an existential element to it that I definitely relate to. When she is lying on the bathroom floor crying, night after night, in despair - I know what that feels like. When she is struggling to make her mind concentrate on meditation in the Ashram and has to leave in frustration, I know what that feels like. When she pulls herself up from the lowest point in her life to start making changes, I know what that feels like, too. Sometimes we need to get to that point to be forced to take charge of our lives, and boy oh boy do I know what that feels like!
I've thought about if this book would be meaningful for men, and I decided that no, I don't think so. There is something so female in the way that her mind works. The way the self is constantly in battle with the self, that critical inner voice, the specific pressures on women "of a certain age" in our society, the never ending race to do it all and be it all - I think these are women's issues.
One of the best things about the book is her discovery of her inner spirit. It is such a great reminder that it is all inside - inside every one of us. Love, passion, enlightenment, all of it. But how we are and what we project does have an effect on the universe. So we have a responsibility to ourselves, and through that, to the world around us. I believe wholeheartedly in these truths.
Now I feel like I have a new friend, someone who has shared something personal with me, and has left me with a road map (not a specific road map, but instead shown me that there is in fact a path, no matter how crooked, through this life). She made me feel like it's all okay - okay to be self-indulgent, okay to not know exactly what you want, okay to fail and try again, okay to want everything in life, okay to do things in an unconventional way, or not do them at all. Just as women throughout time have taken solace in relationships and community, I am embracing the sisterhood of this wonderful writer. This book is a keeper, to be re-read as needed, and cherished.
