Eat,Pray,Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
This book was a gift from my mother for my birthday. We had a family reunion in Romania and as soon as I returned home, currently Manchester, I started reading it.
I ate it up just like Elizabeth enjoyed her Italian experience. I was hungry to go through it. Not even that little melancholy that hits me somewhere before the last 100 pages of a book, when I realize I have to soon say goodbye to it, didn’t slow me down.
I am writing this as I am currently reading something else … so it is curious to see what are the remains of that reading experience now. It made me hungry to go visit Italy, I have never been. Of course I felt I didn’t meditate enough, and that I should go on a spiritual journey.
I mean these would feel like the obvious range of desires. I had fun reading it, which it is not always the case with every book. I looked forward to go to work in the morning on my bus and take the book out and to leave work to catch up again.
In terms of learning and new things, the idea of the three brothers protecting you was beautiful. I love thinking I have three brothers with me all the time who are there with me and just mine. I loved the meditation with a smile. I should practice that more often and try to let myself inhale serenity and let each part of my body smile even at a molecular level. If I could maintain that state of mind then I am sure I would always walk around smiling.
As Felipe came into the picture and their love developed I was happy she encountered it at the time in her life when she was no longer hungry for a partner as a balancing mechanism. This reinforced me to believe that love as a driving force is key. But I can only welcome it and keep it in my life as long as I understand it is the love within me, which has to grow. It is hard to say love for who or what, I guess once love or presence is there then it can span and rays of it can be shared with people and the current world.
An inner battle came up when reading her experience in Bali. I was trying to figure out what is the best way to want to help, give all you have emotionally to help the people you love and not get frustrated and angry when that help does not result in what you envisioned it should. I find this quite tricky.. It did feel reassuring to see that even someone who has been on a spiritual journey and is on his or her path to a more peaceful self can find this a tricky situation. I can’t say I found the recipe for success here but less stress, more practical solutions and more patience can be things that would help me a lot here.
As I kept reading and I was getting closer to the end, not that I was expecting a surprise ending … I was surprised nevertheless. On top of the overall feel good experience… I couldn’t help but being curious if Felipe speaks Romanian hehe. The only romance language he didn’t speak was Italian as per the book … Wonder why he learned Romanian hehe… Oh well as a Romanian myself, I guess it is a normal curiosity.. Or maybe my pride is more curious than me 🙂