News & Blog
A cornucopia of novels! (What is the collective noun for a bunch of novels? A na…
A cornucopia of novels! (What is the collective noun for a bunch of novels? A narrative of novels? A thickening of novels?)
But here they are, in review copies, on display at the BEA conference.
And here's some info on the conference:
https://www.bookexpoamerica.com/Power-Readers/Author-Events/#page=book-club-events
And here's how to pre-order "The Signature of All Things", if you would like you own copy:
https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/the-signature-of-all-things/
Onward!
Liz
It’s HAPPENING… Hey everyone! I’m spending the whole weekend at the BEA pub…
It's HAPPENING…
Hey everyone! I'm spending the whole weekend at the BEA publishing conference in New York, watching in great happiness as "The Signature of All Things" continues its patient march into the world.
They made a poster!
I am happy.
I'll be signing books today (Yes! THIS book! Months before publication!) at the Javits Center, in the Penguin Books area, booth #1521, between 2 and 3pm.
And tomorrow I will be speaking with the great Wally Lamb at 1:30pm, with a reception after. Come!
All love,
Liz
ON RESILIENCE… Dear everyone! This is not the first time I’ve praised Krista…
ON RESILIENCE…
Dear everyone!
This is not the first time I've praised Krista Tippett's radio show, "On Being" on this Facebook page (nor will it be the last!) but I wanted to share this link with you, if anyone out there has time to listen to a really inspiring interview with Andrew Zolli, who has written a book called "Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back."
Zolli has become fascinated with why some people just seem to be more resilient than others (why some people can go through terrible trauma and come out of it relatively unscathed) and how beneficial it might be for all of us to focus our efforts on building our resilience to disasters more than desperately trying to control our worlds so that there are no disasters. (Because, basically: There WILL be disasters.) How do the resilient among us react, Zolli asks, when life begins to feel "like it's raining hammers"?
Hint: Resilience doesn't have anything to do with how rich, young or physically strong you are. It has to do with what Zolli calls "psychological hardiness". His studies seem to show that the people who are most resilient against the trials of existence are those who believe that 1) life has meaning, 2) their own lives have a PARTICULAR meaning, and 3) the trials and sufferings of life can teach us, shape us, and even improve us.
Here's a direct quote from the interview:
"People who are psychologically hardy, it turns out, believe very prevalently some things about the world. So, if you believe that the world is a meaningful place, if you see yourself as having agency within that world, and if you see successes and failures as being placed in your path to teach you things…then you are more likely to be psychologically hardy, and therefore more resilient in the face of trauma."
Without that sort of thinking, Zolli says, when suffering hits, people just fold in on themselves and collapse.
Also? The resilient (the "psychologically hardy") seem to be those who have built a loving community around them, for the free exchange of support and encouragement. I love Zolli's rules for the healthy building of all good community networks:
1) You build them before you need them.
2) You root them in an initial act of generosity. (In other words, you give of yourself to the community in a big and bold and open-hearted way, before you expect anything from anybody.)
Folks, this guy is so good, so interesting, so articulate and thoughtful. So check it out if you want to know more!
To resilience, everyone!
🙂
Love,
Liz
A Shift to Humility: Andrew Zolli on Resilience and Expanding the Edge of Change
www.onbeing.org
Can resilience thinking be a successor to solutions-based strategies and even sustainability, both of which assume that balance can be achieved? Andrew Zolli is helping reframe our approach to everything from economic development to urban planning.
A really sweet story…grow, little rescued daisies, grow!
A really sweet story…grow, little rescued daisies, grow!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Dear Liz,
Just wanted to share some beauty with you. I have been rescuing plants. To start with, I am a born rescuer of people, animals and now plants. These plants are cast offs from stores on clearance and with some TLC, water and great soil, they come back. I have been growing a pot garden the last few months. It's not what you think, but I thought I would show you how once dead plants blossom and bloom under good care. I see such an amazing allegory in them for how humanity could be transformed by such attention. The photo of the Daisy in particular illustrate that. When I rescued it, it was dried and dying with one sad spaghetti limp flower off to the side. I took it home, watered it and replanted the little fellow and a few hours later, he greeted me with the flower standing tall and proud. The next day he brought a friend! So the lesson here is love given out is always given back ten-fold. Yet now, I am running out of room as my pot garden is exploding with love.