![QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you guys believe in this idea? For the most part, I do….]()
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you guys believe in this idea?
For the most part, I do.
Though I think you have to be a BIT careful with this notion, to make sure that you don't drift into "blame the victim" territory here. There are limits. Horrible things happen to people, out of the blue, for which they are not themselves to blame. As the great Martha Beck once said, in response to the widespread fad of easy self-actualization homilies: "I do not believe that crack babies on ventilators in hospitals are there because they 'manifested' that trauma their own lives."
TO BE SURE, MARTHA. To be sure. And we must never relinquish our compassion for the suffering of others by blaming them for their own hard and sometimes tragic destinies. People struggle terribly in this world, and often randomly. All deserve our love and care.
But then there's the other stuff. The stuff we bring on ourselves. The stuff we perpetuate. The stuff we repeat. The dark stuff we keep seeking out. The bad company we choose to keep (in our minds, and in our lives.) The self-destructive thoughts and actions and vendettas and sorrows that we nourish almost lovingly. The anger we won't release. The crazy stuff we keep doing to ourselves even when, technically, we know better. The (frankly) really stupid shit that we keep raining down on our own heads, year after year, because we haven't figured out how to get out of our own way. Or because we keep waiting for somebody or something to change our fates.
I do know this for certain — NOT ONE THING of any consequence in my life ever changed until I personally changed it. This doesn't mean I did it all on my own. I don't believe in stoic individualism. (There were a few years there, in the really bad times, where I had a TEAM of people propping me up and cheering me on through my struggle — loving family and friends, a great therapist, all sorts of spiritual advisors, basically every self-help book known to man, and all kinds of wise thinkers, living and dead. Not to mention GOD.) I leaned on ALL of them. I needed all of them. But they didn't turn me around. They couldn't. They could only encourage me — give me tools.
Ultimately, my life began to finally turn itself around only when I took complete responsibility for it. When I got sick of blaming everything else and everyone else. And every single problem I've had since that day has been fixed only after — once again — I took complete responsibility for it.
As my dear and brave friend Rayya Elias (author of the beautiful addiction/recovery memoir "Harley Loco") always asks, "At what point do you finally accept accountability for your own path? When do you finally stop waiting to be saved?"
Have you done it already?
Have you adopted your own life, in your own hands?
Could it be today?
ONWARD,
Liz
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you guys believe in this idea? For the most part, I do….]()
Sometimes we just need somebody to BREAK IT DOWN into the simplest possible terms.
For our mutual self-edification, then…a helpful flow-chart!
Heart,
Liz
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you guys believe in this idea? For the most part, I do….]()
Hey lovelies!
Have you all signed up for my LizNews email subscription newsletter yet? If not, why, THAT IS CRAZY! Because all the good stuff goes through the newsletter first!
Such as…BOOK GIVEAWAYS!
I've been giving away one pre-publicaiton copy of "The Signature of All Things" every month, and I'm about to do another contest and give away yet another book, but it's through my email newsletter only (Facebook doesn't legally let a person do such things on these pages, thus…the private newsletter!)
So — in order to join and participate, you may click on the LizNews Newsletter link at the top of this page, OR, you can go to my website and click on the link that you will find there on the front page:
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/
Thanks, everyone…and onward!
xo
Liz
Elizabeth Gilbert | Elizabeth Gilbert – The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com
www.elizabethgilbert.com
Home to the writer Elizabeth Gilbert. Her new book, The Signature of All Things, coming soon!
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you guys believe in this idea? For the most part, I do….]()
Dear Ones!
You were all so sweet yesterday in your praise of the GORGEOUS British cover-design for "The Signature of All Things", so I just had to share more.
Look at the details! From the antique-looking cover, to the orchid-themed botanical plates at the end pages, to the gold-embossed "A" (for Alma, our heroine) hidden beneath the paper cover…and guys, they've even added a red silk ribbon, for holding your place!!!
THIS is what a real book should look like. (I love my e-books, mind you, especially when I am traveling, but with all due respect, no electronic book has ever come with a red silk ribbon…sigh.)
I can't wait to hold this one in my hands — and I can't wait till October and my book tour — which will be taking me to, among other places, the United Kingdom! Here are details (though more dates and more countries shall follow):
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/events/
And if you want to order the book in any of its (so far) available iterations, you may do so right here:
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/the-signature-of-all-things/
All love, and happy reading — and THANK YOU, BLOOMSBURY, for such a stunning creation,
Liz
"THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS," British edition
Dear Ones!
You were all so sweet yesterday in your praise of the GORGEOUS British cover-design for "The Signature of All Things", so I just had to share more.
Look at the details! From the antique-looking cover, to the orchid-themed botanical plates at the end pages, to the gold-embossed "A" (for Alma, our heroine) hidden beneath the paper cover…and guys, they've even added a red silk ribbon, for holding your place!!!
THIS is what a real book should look like. (I love my e-books, mind you, especially when I am traveling, but with all due respect, no electronic book has ever come with a red silk ribbon…sigh.)
I can't wait to hold this one in my hands — and I can't wait till October and my book tour — which will be taking me to, among other places, the United Kingdom! Here are details (though more dates and more countries shall follow):
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/events/
And if you want to order the book in any of its (so far) available iterations, you may do so right here:
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/the-signature-of-all-things/
All love, and happy reading — and THANK YOU, BLOOMSBURY, for such a stunning creation,
Liz
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
