Eat Pray Love

I just finished Eat Pray Love. I know I'm late to the party, but hey now I get to see the movie with it fresh in my mind! Can't wait to do that by the way...

Here is where I pause to watch a trailer of the movie. And get sad because Liz was most certainly not Julia Roberts in my head. And in my mind the book bore no resemblance to a romantic comedy, which is exactly what the preview looked like. Sigh...

Anyway, I just loved the book. It was one of those books where you want to slow down and soak up every word so you can be sure it's getting through and sticking.

So on that note, I decided to excerpt a few of my favorite passages:

"the appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one's humanity...You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight."

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it."

"If I am truly to become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian...I not only have to become my own husband, but I need to be my own father too."

I realize there were many gems I did not mark that I now have sadly lost. But what I appreciated most was Gilbert's incredible honesty. She truly bore her soul, her most private and ugly thoughts, for the whole world to see. It made for some powerful stuff on God, grace, relationships, happiness, and figuring out who you are and your place in the world.