Eat, Pray, Love goes home to Bali! :)
Eat, Pray, Love goes home to Bali! 🙂
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Reading EPL on Kuta Beach!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS…some lovely early responses! Dear friends — As m…
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS…some lovely early responses!
Dear friends —
As many of you know, my new novel, "The Signature of All Things" is coming out in October — though you can pre-order it now, just by clicking here:
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/the-signature-of-all-things/
My publisher has just started sending out early copies of the novel to reviewers and booksellers, and I wanted to share with you these wonderful comments that have just come in from three terrific independent bookstores across the country.
These generous words from such smart people are sort of blowing my mind.
Here goes:
"I have been a bookseller for 35 years, and yet for the last year and a half I have not been reading anything–too much stress in my life to concentrate. As you can imagine, this made it hard for me to recommend a book. But once I started in on The Signature of All Things I was swept away and I didn't want to put it down. You could say it's a book about botany, but it's really a wonderful story about some very fascinating people–and one splendid dog. I will be recommending this one to everyone. I think it's THE book this year."
—Susan Russel, Mountain Books, Sonora, CA
“Thank you thank you thank you for sending Elizabeth Gilbert's novel. I absolutely loved it. Alma Whittaker is one of the most vivid and memorable female characters that I've encountered and she will stay with me forever. The Signature of All Things reminded me in many ways of Ahab's Wife, with an unconventional, brave and fascinating woman taking the reader both around the world and deeply inside herself. I was inspired, enthralled and desolate when I reached the end of this amazing novel. I can't wait to share it with our customers. Wow!”
—Cathy Langer, head buyer, Tattered Cover, Denver
"I haven't read anything so wonderfully written and absorbing in ages. When I read every word, rather than skim the book for the plot, know I have a treasure. The characters are deliciously alive and interesting…haven't encountered a dull one yet. I can't wait to get back to it. Finally! An exciting, compelling, original story. The cover is so beautiful that I am sure it will sell as a physical book. Please pass this along. It is a winner."
—Susan Porter, Maine Coast Book Shop
Holy moly, guys. Holy moly. Thank you, Susan, Cathy and Susan!
So please everyone, feel free to pre-order the book if you like! I'll post more comments and reviews as they come in! Super excited. Can't wait for you to all meet Alma Whittaker…
xo,
Liz
The Signature of All Things | Elizabeth Gilbert – The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com
www.elizabethgilbert.com
Indiebound Amazon (USA) Amazon (UK) Bookworld (AU) Barnes & Noble (USA) Amazon Barnes & Noble Apple Kobo
LET’S TALK SERIOUSLY ABOUT UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Everyone, will you help me (and…
LET'S TALK SERIOUSLY ABOUT UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.
Everyone, will you help me (and a fellow seeker) out with this?
A visitor to this page has just asked me whether "unconditional love" means staying in an abusive relationship and learning how to love the person despite how he harms you.
This question makes me want to cry.
Dear one, dear friend, dear heart — the answer to that question is very simple: NO.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Also:
Never, never, never, never, never.
The wisest teaching I've ever heard about this came from a dear monk friend in India who told me, "We must love everyone. That is what God asks of us. But some people can only be loved from a safe distance."
And in regards to some people, that "safe distance" may mean: Never See Them Again. Never Take Their Calls. Never Let Them Near You. Never Let Them Know Where You Live.
Pema Chodron, the great buddhist teacher, has also taught beautifully on this subject. She explains that we should not close our hearts to anyone, but that we must also set healthy and safe boundaries. She urges us not to mistake compassion for compliance. As she said once in a lecture, "Put people in jail, if they are unsafe to others, but do not close your hearts to them."
Being a compassionate person does not mean allowing anyone in the world to treat you (or anyone else) abusively. There is nothing to be "learned" in an abusive relationship (except how to finally leave.) There is no emotional growth waiting for you in an abusive relationship. There are no day-to-day lessons that will make you a more enlightened being if you learn how to bear it, how to endure it. You will not be a better person in any way for staying. On the contrary, it will corrode your soul. Staying with somebody who harms you (in any way) does not mean you are compassionate; it only means you are co-dependent and very likely in psychological, spiritual and/or physical danger.
Will the rest of you please chime in on this? I think it is so important, and I am curious if you all have books, as well, that you can recommend our friend to read on this subject?
This one absolutely breaks my heart, guys.
Please, if somebody is harming you in any way: GO. Today.
All Love,
Liz
TODAY’S GARDENING TIP…
TODAY'S GARDENING TIP…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What does humility mean to you? Nivine asked this yesterda…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What does humility mean to you?
Nivine asked this yesterday on my wall, and I thought I would, as usual, bring the question out into the public for a full examination.
For me, humility doesn't have anything to do with false modesty, or annoying piety, or self-sabotage in the name of misunderstood meekness. Because if you've got a drive to go be something in the world? GO BE IT. Go shine a light, by all means, and shine it big.
For me, then, humility has nothing to do with living small. Instead, it has to do with recognizing all the countless people and forces and accidents of fate and moments of divine mystery that have made your life possible. Nobody has ever done anything of worth in this world all alone. I don't care how much of a self-made maverick you may think are you — the fact is, you aren't one. Nobody is. Trust me; you have been assisted and uplifted, by both seen and unseen powers.
There are people and spirits living and dead who have sacrificed for you, and believed in you, and taught you, and fought for you, and covered for you, and corrected you, and directed you, and cheered for you, and bet on you to win. And there are also people out there who have probably, without you even knowing about it, quietly prayed for you — quietly prayed that one of these days you would finally get your act together. I know damn well they prayed for me.
Do not waste their efforts.
Do not waste their love.
That's what humility means to me — a repetition of that refrain. (Do not waste their efforts. Do not waste their love.) Go out there in the world and be whatever you need to be, but do not under any circumstances forget or squander whatever goodness has been gifted unto you. And then, of course, turn right around and give all that goodness back to the world, just as hard as you possibly can, for as along as you can.
What about you all? How you feel about humility? How have you seen it understood (or misunderstood) in your own life?
Peace out y'all,
Liz
