![Question of the day: IS YOUR GUT INSTINCT YOUR GOD INSTINCT? A friend of this p…]()
Question of the day: IS YOUR GUT INSTINCT YOUR GOD INSTINCT?
A friend of this page named Janice raised this question in a post yesterday, wondering if there is some sort of faint thread that attaches us to the divine, and whether messages arrive for us in what we call our guts (our core, the center of us, the belly of the beast, the most sensitive and secret part of our physiology — the part that is not so distracted by our minds that it can't hear the truth.)
What do you guys think?
Is this where the truth comes in?
The most profound example of gut instinct I ever experienced was when I was in love with a man who simply could not love me healthily in return. But, twisted as the relationship was, I was crazy about this guy. I would have done anything for him, including lose my dignity completely. All I wanted was to be near him. Yet every night, when it came time to sleep beside him, my gut would keep me awake, shouting this message through my whole being: "GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS BED — IT'S NOT SAFE FOR YOU HERE!"
My heart would say, "Shut up, Gut — I love him!"
My brain would say, "Shut up, Gut — you're going to ruin this amazing love story for me!"
My soul would say, "Shut up, Gut — he's my destiny!"
But my gut would not shut up. It never stopped sounding the alarm, and it never relented. It just kept shouting: GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS BED — IT'S NOT SAFE FOR YOU HERE! And that alarming voice in my belly kept me awake, night after night, month after month, forbidding me to relax in that man's bed, until I finally had no choice but to listen…and to leave. Because my gut was absolutely right. There was nothing for me but danger in that love story. Danger and ruin. And my gut was not going to relent its agitation until I was out of there and safe. I honestly think if my gut could have pushed me out the window, it would have — just to get free.
There's an old adage: "The heart wants what it wants." Yeah, sure…but even more powerfully: "The gut knows what it knows."
So where does that instinct come from? Who is guiding the messenger within? Is this how God speaks to us? Or is it our own pre-intellectual instincts? And how often, and how carefully, do you listen to it? When has it saved you?
Discuss!
Hearts and guts,
Liz
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![Question of the day: IS YOUR GUT INSTINCT YOUR GOD INSTINCT? A friend of this p…]()
A friend of this page named Marta sent this yesterday…I like it What about you all? Do you buy this idea or not? Is this inspiring to you, or does it not take into account certain mundane realities…or the necessity sometimes to plan? Is there anything you've been deferring too long?
'splain.
Heart,
Liz
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![Question of the day: IS YOUR GUT INSTINCT YOUR GOD INSTINCT? A friend of this p…]()
Audiobook update…
DUH, I forgot to mention that you can order it already, right here:
https://www.amazon.com/The-Signature-All-Things-Novel/dp/1611762022
("DUH" is not the kind of thing I can ever imagine Juliet Stevenson saying. Which is why she's reading it aloud, and not me.)
🙂
LG
The Signature of All Things: A Novel
www.amazon.com
A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, ad…
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![Question of the day: IS YOUR GUT INSTINCT YOUR GOD INSTINCT? A friend of this p…]()
On Audiobooks and the Great Actresses…
Dear Ones —
Some of you have very nicely been asking me lately if I'm going to be reading the audiobook for my new novel "The Signature of All Things". As some of you know, I did read the audiobooks for "Eat Pray Love" and "Committed" — which was a really funny and surreal experience, both times. (Ten days in each case, locked in a tiny booth with my own words, asking myself sometimes — when stumbling over a difficult passage or a particularly long paragraph — "Give me a break, man, who WROTE this unreadable garble???" And then starting over, and reading it again…and again…and again…until my head almost rolled off in a weary daze.)
I didn't want read the audiobooks for my earlier books (admirable actors did the job) but I insisted on reading EPL and Committed — because those stories were so intimately my own, and I just thought it would be odd to hear somebody else's voice essentially reading my diary.
But with "The Signature of All Things"…well, I never even considered doing it. First of all, I can't do the accents that this novel requires (which range from an 18th century British Baron, to a 19th-century Bostonian scholar, to a cheerful Cornish sailor, to a drunken Italian astronomer, to a dangerous Yorkshireman, to a Philadelphia coquette, to a stern Dutch-born housekeeper, to a refined native-born Polynesian missionary…and many more beyond.)
Also, it's 500 pages long, and I think my vocal chords would collapse and my brains would turn to custard.
But most importantly, I could hear a voice in my head the entire time I was writing this novel…and that voice wasn't my own. That voice was Juliet Stevenson's.
Those of you who are audiobook junkies probably know Ms. Stevenson already. She's read most of the Jane Austen novels, a good deal of Virginia Woolf, and I keep her exquisite version of "Middlemarch" on my iPhone forever, listening to it when I have trouble falling asleep at night. It always soothes and delights me.
For those of you who don't know Juliet Stevenson…oh, you're in for a treasure. She's a gorgeously trained British actress of stage and screen — one of the greats — with a voice that is intelligent, calm and supple. She just SOUNDS like an omniscient narrator — and a compassionate one, too. From the beginning, she was only person I ever wanted to read "The Signature of All Things" but I never thought I would be lucky enough to get her.
Guys, I got her.
So this is a dream for me. She's actually doing it. I am so thrilled and honored. I cannot wait to hear how she sees my world.
So that's that…and if anyone wants to check out her complete collection of audiobooks on iTunes, here it is. Her Jane Austens are superb. You can hear some small samples:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/juliet-stevenson/id2024416?mt=11
Happy listening, and thank you, Juliet Stevenson!
Heart,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
![Question of the day: IS YOUR GUT INSTINCT YOUR GOD INSTINCT? A friend of this p…]()
This is wonderful…thank you, Lyndsey!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Hi, Liz! I'm a longtime fan, and thought I'd share this moment from a recent hike in Great Falls, MD. While crossing a bridge, we caught sight of our shadows on the side of the mountain, and couldn't resist waving to them. It immediately brought a phrase from EPL to mind: “Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.” Thank you for helping us to recognize those moments!
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
