Ate, Prayed, Didn’t Love
I got a copy of Eat, Pray, Love for my birthday. Several people I know have read this and loved it. And, for two of the book’s three sections, I agree. Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey through Italy is full of sumptuous food writing. Her spiritual journey in Italy is one I can grasp: she’s surrounded by the beauty of art and good food, and wrestling with giving herself permission to find happiness, and to feel it. She’s learning to treat herself well, to feel that she deserves good things. After the breakdown of a romance, that can be a long process. She also describes Italy, its art, its food, its people, in sumptuous sensory detail that draws me in. It makes me want to look for flights.
Her section on India resonates for me as well. The way she describes wrestling angrily with her own emotions as she struggles to surrender to meditation practice echoes thoughts I sometimes have. I appreciate her candor, and her vivid imagery, as she describes getting in her own way, and fighting her way towards stillness. Her eventual glimpses of, and surrender to, meditation, is easier to grasp after being invited into the emotional, sometimes angry, spiritual healing process.
From one Elizabeth to another- I found myself reading the first two sections- turning a few corners down on pages, smiling at her images and turns of phrase. I feel that she has both put words to my own feelings, and explored the nuances of her own emotional experience in a way that is uniquely her own.
And then… Indonesia. I realize it was part of her journey, even the part where she found love (that’s not a spoiler, it’s right there in the title after all!) But… I feel like I’ve been mired in this section of the book for months! Yes, she is learning new techniques of meditation from an entertaining, and wise guru- I particularly like the advice of “smile with your whole self- even your liver.” But I feel like she’s progressed to this point, and is coasting through idle (but very pretty tropical) days- and I can’t quite get into reading about whatever spiritual work she has left. So I’ve skimmed the last section, feeling let down, because the first two were so wonderfully engrossing, honest and gorgeously written.
