QUESTION OF THE DAY…Do you trust happiness? So the other night I was having…

QUESTION OF THE DAY…Do you trust happiness? So the other night I was having…

QUESTION OF THE DAY…Do you trust happiness?

So the other night I was having dinner with an old friend, and we were both commenting on how happy we are at this moment in our lives (a notable fact, since both of have been THROUGH SOME SHIT) and as we spoke about how good things were going, I slowly realized that this whole conversation about our hard-earned contentment was making us both really nervous. I started looking around for wood to knock on, for instance. And my friend started qualifying her statements about her beautiful new peace-of-mind with superstitious comments like, "I mean, I know my luck can change at any moment…" And I actually overheard myself saying, "I hope I don't awaken up some demon of misery by mentioning how good things are going…"

Which made me realize: Oh, dear. We don't really trust our happiness, do we?

Which then made me think: What the F?

Because I've been a full-out crusader for happiness for years now, and a veritable spokesmodel against misery. I have fought hard, and continue to fight hard every day, for a good life. I am the last person in the world whom I would ever suspect of fearing joy, but I guess I still have a little trace of that anxiety in me. Why else would I still hesitate to speak these words: "I am happy" without feeling some odd dark medieval primal fear that, merely by speaking this statement, I will cause the roof over my head to collapse upon me because of…what? Retaliation? A balancing of the scales of fortune? Some old stubborn Protestant notion that God does not wish for us to be contented? A sense that even to be MOST GRATEFULLY contented is to risk hubris and the wrath of Zeus? A over-anxious awareness that ALL THIS CAN BE TAKEN FROM ME IN AN INSTANT and then misery will strike again, and thus I should sleep with one eye open?

But sleeping with one eye open doesn't make for very restful sleep, does it?

So what is it?

Do you guys have this?

What are we to make of it?

I don't want to be that person — not even a trace of that person.

Because it is a good thing to be happy, and it is a fine thing to know that contentment is a rare gift worthy of sincere appreciation. Why should we waste our good days worrying about the bad ones that might come in the future? Surely trouble will find us if it wants to (trouble always knows where we live, after all) but why call its name? If things are going well, just let things go well, and be grateful.

I gotta ponder this one, because I really surprised myself the other night.

Curious to hear your thoughts, oh wise crew.

Have a beautiful day!
Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

QUESTION OF THE DAY…Do you trust happiness? So the other night I was having…

Another lovely review for “THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS”… Dear Ones – As many…

Another lovely review for "THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS"…

Dear Ones –

As many of you know, my novel, "The Signature of All Things" is coming out in October. I've been posting reviews of the book on this page as they come in, and I wanted to share with you this sweet letter I just received from one of my favorite booksellers in America — Bill Stewart of Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, in Birmingham, Alabama. Bill and his terrific wife Vicky deal in rare and artist's books, and I am a TEENSY bit addicted to their wares. They are true artisanal book purveyors, and I adore them.

Here is Bill's generous (and gorgeously written) response to "The Signature of All Things":

"Wow, Liz – just wow.

I finished your stunning book at 4:30 a.m. one recent morning, aching for a cave of mosses and another chapter.

I've taken to reading more slowly, much more slowly, these days. Instead of rushing through books, I find it more enjoyable to take Mae West's advice — anything worth doing it worth doing slowly. So I've been breast-stroking through The Signature of All Things for weeks, and what a wonderful swim it was. It exercised and exorcized parts of me that I didn't know existed (wonderful) or had forgotten about (more wonderful).

I started to contact you after I read that first, short introductory section – right from the start I was captured by the voice, by the voice and what inspirited that voice, the knowledge, the angle of vision, the expansive heart.

The characters – full enough to break bread with, convincing enough to believe in even when they did impossible things. I teared up for Anna and Ambrose, the same events evoking different tears.

Thanks for writing this book, and thanks for sharing it with us.

Another wow,
Bill

Vicky and Bill Stewart
Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, LLC
Contemporary Fine Press & Artists' Books"

If any of you would like to breast-stroke slowly through this novel (love that image) as Bill has done, you may pre-order it here:

https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/the-signature-of-all-things/

Blessings to you all, and THANK YOU, BILL!

xo
Liz


The Signature of All Things | Elizabeth Gilbert – The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com
www.elizabethgilbert.com
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via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

QUESTION OF THE DAY…Do you trust happiness? So the other night I was having…

Gorgeous mother-daughter HAPPINESS JARS from the Philippines!

Gorgeous mother-daughter HAPPINESS JARS from the Philippines!


Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
“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.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

my daughter and i can't help giggle each time we recall and write our happiest moment of the day. thanks Liz as we learn to find joy even during times of atrocities.

Our Happiness Jars. Philippines 2013.

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall