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Eat Pray Love
Have you read The Witch Queen’s Secret yet? Oh, please, please go read The Witch Queen’s Secret! It’s free! And I love Dera SO much, I just want everyone else to read about her and love her, too.
But that actually wasn’t why I was blogging today. I was blogging because this week I finally read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. And I know Elizabeth Gilbert is (probably) not staying awake nights waiting to hear what I thought of her multi-million copy selling book. But it seems like everyone is talking about it just now with the movie coming out and everything. And since I only just picked up a copy for the first time this week, I thought I’d add my two cents:
I really, really loved it. (Yes, yes, I know, Elizabeth Gilbert is even now breathing a huge sigh of relief.) But I really did. And not just because it is funny and smart and touching and well written. Though it certainly is.
Apart from the fact that we are both writers from Connecticut (and as I’m sure you’ll agree would–clearly–both look really great with Julia Roberts playing us in movies), my life could pretty much not be more different from Elizabeth Gilbert’s during the year she wrote about. She had four months of focusing on the experience of pleasure in Rome. The other day, I asked my husband to watch the girls (ages 3 and 1) for five minutes so that I could run into the pharmacy and buy myself a new bottle of shampoo. And practically danced my way up and down the personal care products aisle singing ‘I’m on VACATION!’ She spent 4 months in a spiritual retreat in India praying and meditating for hours on end every day. I typically have 10 seconds to utter a prayer for patience so that my head doesn’t spin around like the girl in The Exorcist when my 3 year old drop kicks the training potty all over the carpet.
But here’s the thing: I still found it incredibly uplifting to read her book, and not just in a ‘I wish I could do something like that someday’ kind of way.
I was talking to my dad (who hadn’t read the book) about the whole idea, and he said, ‘So basically she just pays attention to herself for a year.’ And on the surface, I suppose that’s true in a way. But that’s really not the point. Yes, she spent a year focusing on herself and rebuilding her life after a painful divorce. But through that year, she got to a spiritual place that most of us only ever dream of–and then she turned around and gave that year BACK to everyone who reads her book. Gave it back 7 million times, or whatever the exact sales figures are. And it’s a really, really powerful gift, wherever you are in life, whether you’re recently divorced or happily married to your best friend.
I read the ‘Rome’ section, and I started to think, This all sounds amazing, all this focus on the experience of pure, unalloyed pleasure. But would I trade even one single day with my husband and my girls for a whole eternity of being on my own in Rome? Not even for one single second would I consider that trade. So, okay, given that I would chose my husband and girls in a heartbeat every time, how about I try to focus on experiencing that same pure, unalloyed pleasure in my life with them, every minute of every day. I mean, when the baby is enchanted by the delight of playing in running water from the sink faucet for the very first time, what if I just focused on sitting there, in that moment, purely loving her delight. Instead of half purely loving it, half purely thinking, Okay, after this I have to fold the laundry, then answer those three e-mails, and maybe if I hurry I can . . .
What would happen if I did that every day, just focused on how much I love being a wife and mama and writer?
I’m pretty sure I’d need that ‘please stop my head from spinning around like the girl in the Exorcist’ prayer a lot less often, for one thing.
And prayer? She has this wonderful section where she talks about the highest form of prayer being pure love. And there’s a line of writing in my own religious tradition that talks about ‘prayer that shall rise above words and letters and transcend the murmur of syllables and sounds.’ What if I tried that more often, even in those little snippits of time I have to think about spirituality and conversing with the Divine? Better yet, what if I tried to make my entire LIFE–mothering my girls, writing my books–into an act of pure love, one that transcends the murmur of syllables and sounds?
I only read this book last night, so the jury is still out, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it would be pretty freaking powerful.
So there you go. I loved the book. Elizabeth Gilbert can now sleep at night.
This entry was posted Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 11:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6 Responses to “Eat Pray Love”
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August 29th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Anna,
I haven’t read, or even heard about this book (which isn’t a surprise I guess because I tend to ‘stick’ to my favored geanre, but you have interested me enough to have a look at it because it’s different.
August 29th, 2010 at 12:07 am
Anna,
I haven’t read, or even heard about this book (which isn’t a surprise I guess because I tend to ‘stick’ to my favoured genre, but you have interested me enough to have a look at it because it’s different.
I also like the Prayer for Patience, Exorcist referral. I have those moments and I had to laugh that it’s a rather true comparison – The Exorcist head spinning girl – and trying to control myself when Maelgwn stomps mud through the house, also attempts to help empty his potty, missing toilet, all over toilet..and so on.
Your dad is also quite a character
Good post though; it’s definitely got me thinking.
August 29th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Opps that was silly, it posted twice before I could spell check!
August 31st, 2010 at 10:05 am
Interesting! I never had the urge to read the book.. till reading your thoughts on it. I’ll have to keep it in the positive side of the back of my mind.
August 31st, 2010 at 10:16 am
Marie, I’d kind of written the book off myself, there are a LOT of negative opinions on it out there, a lot of people accusing her of being a raving narcissist etc etc. But I honestly didn’t get that, and I DID really enjoy the book, I had the ‘sad it’s over’ feeling when I finished, which I almost never get with a non fiction book.
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Just discovered your blog as a link with your posting at WU about your latest Arthurian work. (Like the map!)
Re: book–liked the movie better!
Have to say I did not get into the book but I really enjoyed the movie. Wrote about it in a blog entry, linked below. The movie gave some food for thought.
As for prayer, I have always thought that daily life provides so many opportunities for prayerful living, without being in a religious setting.
After the movie, my husband and I collaborated on making a home-made pizza with fresh veg from the market. It was delicious!
When our children were small, each day had so much to be thankful for as our family grew together. Anna, you have a support network that works for your writing, so you are twice blessed! Enjoy!
Patricia
https://pm27.wordpress.com/