News & Blog
ONLY TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL OUR JANE EYRE BOOK CLUB CONVENES! I hope you’re all…
ONLY TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL OUR JANE EYRE BOOK CLUB CONVENES!
I hope you're all enjoying reading Jane Eyre as much as I am…and I will meet all you devoted readers right back here on this page on Saturday June 8th for discussions and questions about the novel.
Anybody who wants to join in, just read Jane Eyre and come join us here!
xo
Liz
Hey everyone! It’s been a while since we’ve had a photo of a HAPPINESS JAR, and…
Hey everyone! It's been a while since we've had a photo of a HAPPINESS JAR, and here is a beautiful one from Scotland. Thank you so much for sharing, Mandy! 🙂
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Hi Liz from Scotland, I made these jars for a group of people I had round tonight discussing and investigating Happiness, they are now off adding happiness with a view of making gifts to others of Happiness Jars. The ripple effect reaches out making magic happen, keep smiling Mandy x
QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT WEIRD OBJECT CAN YOU NOT GIVE UP? OK, first of all…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT WEIRD OBJECT CAN YOU NOT GIVE UP?
OK, first of all — the photo. Some explanation may be in order.
Yesterday I began some deep, deep, deep spring cleaning of my house. I have a dream of tidy closets and drawers that you can actually shut, because they aren't spilling over with junk. I have a dream of owning no shoes that I do not actually wear, and of safeguarding no piles of instructional manuals/warrantees that I cannot actually read. I have a dream of a garage that looks like a garage in an advertisement for nice garages. I want a clean and breezy life, not a thick and cluttered one. So I got serious about throwing some shit away. Big time.
My plan was to be remorseless. And I was remorseless, I tell you — I WAS!
Then I found this headband, in the bottom of a box containing broken childhood dolls.
This is my original 1981 Olivia Newton-John "Let's Get Physical" headband. It was the most important item in my life in seventh grade, because: 1) it was not easy to acquire, as we had no malls near our family farm, 2) I bought it with my own babysitting money on a rare shopping trip with my grandmother, and 3) I felt that wearing this item lent me an urbane and sophisticated and even slightly irresistible air. (As you can see: IT STILL DOES.) I felt so confident in my headband, in fact, that wore it to several important middle-school dances and social functions and school play auditions. Did it get the boys to dance with me? No. Did it get me the lead role? No. But it didn't NOT get the boys to dance with me, either, nor did it take AWAY my lead role! (I think? Maybe? Hard to say, to be honest…)
Do you throw away an item like this — an item imbued with such nostalgic and talismanic and life-transforming powers? No. No, you do not. You put it right back in the box to be kept forever, for no good reason whatsoever except: Just Because.
Which is weird, because of what I AM able to toss away, by contrast. Wedding dress? That can go. Old letters from old boyfriends? Goodbye, sir — GOODBYE. Broken childhood dolls? Even though it sort of feels like murder, there is no reason to keep them. Friendly old jewelry and fond old raincoats? To the thrift shop they go!
But my Olivia Newton-John "Let's Get Physical" royal blue and golden brocade headband? You can have it when you pry it out of my cold dead fingers.
Which led me to wonder…what absurd objects can you not part with? And why? And what does it mean about us when our hoarding gets so strangely specific?
Do tell. Tell all.
(ps — Let's get animal. I wanna hear your body talk. Your body talk. Etc, etc…)
🙂
Liz
A sweet photo from last week’s BookExpo event in NYC…and everyone: Check out A…
A sweet photo from last week's BookExpo event in NYC…and everyone: Check out Alison's book, "NOTE TO SELF" if you get a chance! 🙂
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Hi Liz. So great to meet you at BookExpo America the other day – what a treat. Looking forward to reading your new novel on that VERY long plane ride home to Australia in a couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy my new novel NOTE TO SELF. Alison Nancye : )
What a beautiful message…Thank you, Myranda!
What a beautiful message…Thank you, Myranda!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
This week I decided to learn hand embroidery, in the simplicity of learning something new it brought an even deeper, profound understanding. Somehow seeing something tangible it made a quote I've read over and over more meaningful. Seeing a crisp, embroidered side of fabric and then seeing the reverse, frayed, tatty… It reminded me of people, the duality we carry and seeing the beauty of both sides, appreciating both.