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Hey guys, guess what? Remember how I kept saying last week there was going to b…

Mar 19, 2013

Hey guys, guess what?

Remember how I kept saying last week there was going to be a big announcement soon? It's coming TOMORROW.

At LAST.

Anyone who subscribes to the LizNews email newsletter will get the word first — as always! So if you haven't yet signed up, go ahead and do it!

You can click on the LizNews icon on the upper right-hand side of this page, or just go to my website (www.elizabethgilbert.com) and sign up there, OK?

Then you won't miss a thing.

It's gonna be a REALLY FUN WEEK.

Super excited,
Liz


Elizabeth Gilbert | Elizabeth Gilbert – The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com
www.elizabethgilbert.com
Home to the writer Elizabeth Gilbert. Her new book, The Signature of All Things, coming soon!

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

POEM OF THE DAY! Dear ones — I wanted to share this poem with you, by Carl D…

Mar 19, 2013

POEM OF THE DAY!

Dear ones —
I wanted to share this poem with you, by Carl Dennis. I clipped it out of the New Yorker a few years ago, and it has hung on the bulletin board over my desk ever since. It is, to my eye, a sweet and humane cautionary tale about the potential dangers of trying too hard to live in the moment. I love the meditations of Marcus Aurelius, too, so this one is especially poignant to me. Here goes:

A MAXIM

To live each day as if it might be the last
Is an injunction that Marcus Aurelius
Inscribes in his journal to remind himself
That he, too, however privileged, is mortal,
That whatever bounty is destined to reach him
Has reached him already, many times.
But if you take his maxim too literally
And devote your mornings to tinkering with your will,
Your afternoons and evenings to saying farewell
To friends and family, you'll come to regret it.
Soon your lawyer won't fit you into his schedule.
Soon your dear ones will hide in a closet
When they hear your heavy step on the porch.
And then your house will slide into disrepair.
If this is my last day, you'll say to yourself,
Why waste time sealing drafts in the window frames
Or cleaning gutters or patching the driveway?
If you don't want your heirs to curse the day
You first opened Marcus's journals,
Take him simply to mean you should find an hour
Each day to pay a debt or forgive one,
Or to write a letter of thanks or apology.
No shame in leaving behind some evidence
You were hoping to live beyond the moment.
No shame in a ticket to a concert seven months off,
Or, better yet, two tickets, as if you were hoping
To meet by then someone who'd love to join you,
Two seats near the front so you catch each note.
— Carl Dennis

This poem has always reminded me of an essay I once read by a guy named Kai Krause, who said that it is all very well to live in the moment, but that there is also real and tremendous human happiness to be found in savoring our fond memories of the past, or dreaming of a sweet future. His suggestion, which gently challenged some pretty fundamental notions of Zen philosophy, was that, in order to live happy and balanced lives, we really should give as much attention to the past and the future as we do to the present. Krause's philosophy, in a nutshell, was this: "Make plans and take pictures."

ANYHOW, what do you guys think? One way or another, I think it's a lovely poem for a cloudy Tuesday morning.

For more Carl Dennis, see here:
https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Poems-1974-2004-Poets-Penguin/dp/0142000833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363694244&sr=8-1&keywords=carl+dennis

And for Marcus Aurelius's Meditations (a beautiful book everyone should own), see here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations

Big love,
Liz

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

IN GRATITUDE FOR SPACIOUSNESS… Good Monday morning, everyone! This morn…

Mar 18, 2013

IN GRATITUDE FOR SPACIOUSNESS…

Good Monday morning, everyone!

This morning I am pondering the miracle and godliness of making space. And also, by natural comparison, I am pondering the deadliness of stress. I've been thinking about how the word "stress" comes to us from the Latin word "strictus", which means "a violent compression." That sort of compression (whether it is physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, psychic) brings us nothing but despair, as it crushes out all the space we need for the good and big things in our world (compassion, delight, awe, hope, creativity, forgiveness, patience, love).

These days (especially Mondays!) I try to keep reminding myself to push back against that sense of compression whenever and wherever it arises. Yes, the modern world is a stress-generating machine, but we cannot just give into it. We can (and must) take accountability for fighting back against the forces of compression and against our own restrictions. We can mindfully keep looking for more space in ourselves, and we can stubbornly insist on making more space for others, too — recognizing how heroically difficult it is at times (for everyone) to be a person on this planet, trapped inside an insane and confusing human brain. I am trying harder than ever not to constrict other people upon my own vise grip (or should I say, VICE grip?) of judgment and contempt, even as I try to keep clearing room in my own heart to forgive my own moronic and narrow shortcomings.

I had an experience recently of consciously making space for someone whom I'd been struggling with, rather than trapping both of us in a oxygen-depleting constriction chamber of negativity and old resentments. Instead of assigning blame, I just tried to build the biggest possible space in my heart for my friend, as we slowly worked our way through conversation back to each other. And then I got to watch as love rushed in to all that clean and open space, followed by peace and forgiveness.

I remember a monk in India teaching me that "tolerance" does not mean passively sitting back and letting people walk all over us; rather, tolerance is a muscular and powerful spiritual practice that involves clearing as much space as we possibly can in our hearts and minds for other people's fundamental goodness to find room to breathe and grow.

So…space, space, space. Make more space, people. That's my aspiration of the week‚ anyhow — and, I guess, of my life. Make more space, resist the compression, raise the ceilings, open the windows, get out from under the weights you have placed on your own head. God is always bigger than we remember, and God is always trying to get in. Make room.

I wish you all a beautiful Monday,

xo LIZ

ps — The lovely painting of the sacred bull floating through space is by the very talented Caitlin Hurd. www.caitlinhurd.com

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall