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…and then there's this bit of truth-telling.

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

Practicing Piano, 1979…and you can see how overjoyed I am about it!

A lovely relative sent me this photo yesterday of me, age 10, relishing my piano practicing. God, I hated doing it. But I always credit my mother with MAKING me do it, though heaven knows it would've been easier for her to have just given up on me. But nope — that kitchen timer would come out, and I would have to sit there and practice till my time was up.

I guess they call that "building character"?

I think one of the greatest skills in life (especially if you want to be a creative person) is learning how to sit through boring things. These days when I'm writing and it isn't going well, it STILL feels like I'm ten years old and practicing the piano.

Gotta do it, anyhow. Get out that kitchen timer. Do it till it's done. Repeat, repeat, repeat….

ONWARD,
LG

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY, EVERYONE…

Heart,
LG

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

A relic from 2001…

I've been packing up some things in my house and I found this photo that my friend took of me in, back when I was going through my divorce. We'd gone off for a day to the beach, to try to uplift the mood a bit. (The mood was ROUGH, man. Really rough.) She gave me this photo later and I wrote that Shakespeare quote on it. (Back before Facebook, we had to write our own quotes down on real pictures with actual magic markers!) I kept this with me as a reminder, and it was helpful in dark times. Also, it turned out to be true.

Sending love,
LG

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

Dear Ones —

I overheard a friend of mine say this to his daughter the other day, as she was sitting at the dinner table, complaining about the meal, complaining about her day, complaining about her school…

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU HATE THAT MAKES YOU AN INTERESTING PERSON, BUT WHAT YOU LOVE.

I thought it was beautiful and wise — and excellent parenting, by the way! It also completely changed the tone of the evening, and led the conversation in a wildly unexpected direction. We all went around the table and talked about what we love (even the previously complaining girl) and indeed, we all suddenly seemed a hell of a lot more interesting.

So I thought it would be cool today if we all wrote down, just off the tops of our heads, what we love.

Don't overthink it — just throw something out there.

I'll start: "I love spending my life in engagement with the mystery of human creativity."

So tell me — what do you love? What makes you interesting?

HEART
LG

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall