Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Eternal Wisdom of "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert


"I'm here.
I love you.
I don't care if you need to stay up crying all night long.
I will stay with you.
If you need the medication again, go ahead and take it...
I will love you through that, as well.
If you don't need the medication, I will love you , too.
There's nothing you can ever do to lose my love.
I will protect you until you die...
And after your death I will still protect you.
I Am stronger than Depression and I Am braver than Loneliness.
And nothing will ever exhaust Me."

"People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.
A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.
A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master..."

"I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism."

"This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something."

"Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be."

"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."

"When I get lonely these days, I think: So BE lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings."

"To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."

"Tis' better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else's perfectly."

"I think I deserve something beautiful."

"There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in."

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts."

"Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend."

"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."

"We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy's fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, under him the whole time. Your treasure--your perfection--is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart."

"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."

"Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots."

"Someday you're gonna look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You'll see that you were in mourning and your heart was broken, but your life was changing..."

"Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy."

"I am a better person when I have less on my plate."

"Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a FRIEND… "

"There is a reason they call God a presence - because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time."

"When the karma of a relationship is done, only love remains. It's safe. Let go."

~ Elizabeth Gilbert ("Eat, Pray, Love")