Love eat pray love

      A great big thank you to whoever suggested this book for our club. I found it fun, fascinating, insightful and stimulating. I relate personally with so much of Gilbert’s own insights and feelings, and I like her method of expressing them.

      Her writing is both direct and meandering, interesting and funny:

“I’m grateful for Luca [Spaghetti] because he has finally allowed me to get even with my friend Brian, who was lucky enough to have grown up next door to a Native American kid named Dennis Ha-Ha, and therefore could always boast that he had the friend with the coolest name. Finally, I can offer competition” (p. 58).

      As for Gilbert’s insights and feelings related in the book, I feel very connected with her. She sees herself as I have done at times, in terms of how she thinks the world sees her, as in this exchange with Richard from Texas at the Ashram in India:

“’OK, I think you’re probably right. Maybe I do have a problem with control. It’s just weird that you noticed. Because I don’t think it’s that obvious on the surface. I mean — I bet most people can’t see my control issues when they first look at me.’

Richard from Texas laughs so hard he almost loses his toothpick.

‘They can’t? Honey — Ray Charles could see your control issues!’” (p. 151).

      I walk around thinking I’m fooling the world about who I am, thinking what a good actress I am. And I just know there are some wise souls out there, shaking their heads and tsk-tsking me for playing this time waster of a game.
      Another example of how I feel connected to her is when she describes how singing the Gurugita for her nephew changed her relationship with the task:

“I filled the song with everything I wished I could teach him about life. I tried to reassure him with every line about how the world is hard and unfair sometimes, but that it’s all OK because he is so loved. He is surrounded by souls who would do anything to help him. And not only that — he has wisdom and patience of his own, buried deep inside his being, which will only reveal themselves over time and will always carry him through any trial. He is a gift from God to all of us” (p. 169).

      The sentiments Gilbert expresses in the lines above are similar to ones I feel toward my nieces and nephews. I would imagine parents feel the same way about their children. There is so much love in those lines. Pure, simple love. No strings attached. Nothing her nephew needs to do to deserve any of it. I find that utterly beautiful. I also see it as a reminder to myself: that I am loved, that I am a gift from God. There are moments in my life (in fact, the majority of them), when I act as if I am not loved. Here is another reminder that I am.
      Finally, the books contains so many nuggets of wisdom, from her Italian comrades to her friends in India and Indonesia:

      * Richard from Texas: “A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake” (p. 149).
      * The plumber at the Ashram: “With all your heart, ask for grace, and let go” (p. 185).
      * Giovanni: “Liz, you must be very polite with yourself when you are learning something new” (p.56).

      Besides all the spiritual insights, Gilbert describes a Yogic practice that absolutely fascinates me. The blue energy pitching though her body as she meditates tests my curiosity: Is this really possible? What is really happening here? Is it good for you? Is it a spiritual or a physiological event? Tale 46, beginning of page 143, bears rereading.

      So again, thanks for this reading. I tore through it so quickly the first time, I think I will have to make time to reread the entire thing, starting with Tale 46.