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It's MOVIE MONDAY again!

OK, everyone — I missed this last week when I was away in Australia, but here it is again…movie monday! Click below to watch my official book trailer for my new novel "The Signature of All Things." I'll be showing it every Monday until October 1 (only six weeks away! crazy!) when the book finally comes out.

https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/video/

And if any of you dear souls would like to do me a solid and pre-order the novel, you can do so right here:

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

Can't wait for you to all meet Alma Whittaker…

Heart,
Liz

Video | Elizabeth Gilbert – The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com
www.elizabethgilbert.com
"The Signature of All Things" promo trailer Elizabeth talks about THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity TEDTal

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

I love this quote. I heard once that the anthropological definition of intelligences is "curiosity, combined with a desire to put things into logic patterns." (I was delighted that the definition did not include, say, "ability to read a map.")

All my most fruitful seeking and making in life has been born out of curiosity, and hopefully always will be. I feel like curiosity and stubbornness have been the two guiding stars of my existence as a writer, in particular. (The author Robert Stone once quipped, recognizably, that he had the two worst character faults possible in a writer — that he was lazy, and a perfectionist. I've always thought that if you can trade those two creativity-killing traits out for simply being curious and stubborn, then you are ON YOUR WAY.)

I'm on record, too, as having said that I prefer curiosity as a driving force of life to passion. (Interesting that Einstein uses both words here.) Passion, to my mind, is a tall order, emotionally consuming, sometimes difficult to reach or sustain. Curiosity is more gentle and enduring — a tap on the shoulder, rather than a flaming torch. Curiosity doesn't burn out, or cause you to be wildly reckless. Curiosity never says, "Let's jump off that cliff!", but often says, very softly, "Let's see what happens if we open that door, shall we…?"

It has been my curiosity about plants, for instance, that pushed me to write "The Signature of All Things" — not necessarily a passion for botany, just a little twinge of constant inquisitiveness, a little sense of: "Huh. I wonder what that all about?" And I followed that whisper all the way to the end of the novel.

So a toast today to the places curiosity can take us…and tell me, where has it taken you?

All love,
Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

Just a little reminder for everyone, at the end of the weekend…

And listen, I've got a question: Do you think stress can honestly be eliminated? Not in the world, perhaps, but at least in your own life? I'm always struck when I see references to "stress management" (as though we have already surrendered to its inevitability) when I think I would prefer a cultural discussion based upon "stress annihilation."

As a driven, anxious, repressed Calvinist, stress has been part of my life since earliest childhood memory, and it has only been in recent years that I've watched it, at times, finally begin to ebb. Some of this is due, I think to simple maturity — to getting better at the craft of living. Some of it has been about learning to say no. Some of it has been about learning how to better take care of my own health. Some of it has been FINALLY inching toward a recognition that other people's lives belong to them — and that relationships tend to function more smoothly when I back away a bit. (Emotional over-reach has been a huge stressor in my own history.) Some of it is due to having lived long enough to know that life moves in cycles and seasons, and that if you wait out the drama, things will slowly return to their center.

But I'm still totally capable of losing my shit at times over basically nothing, just to be clear. Gotta keep working on that.

So tell me how you have all come to handle your own stresses in your own lives? Share techniques. Let's hear each other out. This thing is a killer — a literal killer (disease and misery surf into our shores upon tides of stress, I believe) — and I would love to know how you all manage it…or, better, annihilate it!

Big heart,
Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

It arrived!

Dear everyone — Gaia, the winner of my most recent book giveaway contest, sent this photo of her gift: An advance copy of "The Signature of All Things", signed to her and sent all the way to Ireland! (The kitty was not included, but looks quite contented!)

If any of you would like a chance to win next time, be sure to sign up for my LizNews email newsletter — the only place I do contests. You can click on the link at the top of this page, or sign up on the front page of my website: www.elizabethgilbert.com.

Happy reading, Gaia! I loved your story…hope you like Alma Whittaker's!

🙂
Liz

Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
getting ready for long night with Alma Whittaker, I'm so curious, so thrilled to meet her, she arrived today, I couldn't greet her at home as I was away to nearby city but picked her up at wee local post office after, now Maika, my ginger kitty keeps her company while I'm making mug of strong coffee with pinch of cinnamon and vanilla…it will be an amazing evening 🙂 THANK YOU 😀

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

Look at this beautiful world-within-a-HAPPINESS JAR!

Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Hi Liz-
Aloha from Kauai !
Some days I put my headphones on and go for walks on the bluffs while listening to EPL. It feels like we're going for walks together and you're telling me a great story. 🙂

Thank you,
Christa

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall