Eat, Pray, Love

Tonight Z was being somewhat difficult and not going to sleep, so I spent a long time in bed trying to put him to sleep and consequently finished reading Eat, Pray, Love. I have wanted to read this since a friend of mine told me about seeing the author on TV and also because every time I search for or buy a book on Amazon, it says something like "people who bought that book, also bought Eat, Pray, Love." The third reason is that I like the cover--it is cool. The Eat is made out of pasta, the Pray is made out of prayer beads (japa mala) and the Love is made out of flower petals. And yes, I did count all the beads in "Pray" to make sure there were actually 108 (there were). This book is the chronicle of the author's one year spiritual journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia (Bali). She spends four months in each country living among the people and discovering what the country has to teach her.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book for the most part. The author has a light, engaging, conversational style. She talks about how she can make friends with anyone and she does sort of "make friends" with her readers as well. I had this feeling of knowing her--though I didn't know I felt that way until I read some of the book reviews on Amazon and felt sort of surprised like, "these people know her too? My pal Liz?" I did notice that for someone seeking spiritual insights on a solitary journey, almost all of the book involves her relationships with the people she meets. Goes to show that no woman is an island, of course, and the power of relationship, but it seems different than what she says she has set out to do. Also, I only marked two pages which is a sign that I did not gather anything particularly lasting from this book.

One of the two pages I marked was this:

"I should say here that I'm aware not everyone goes through this kind of metaphysical crisis. Some of us are hardwired for anxiety about mortality, while some of us just seem more comfortable with the whole deal. You meet lots of apathetic people this world, of course, but you also met some people who seem to be able to gracefully accept the terms upon which the universe operates and genuinely don't seem troubled by its paradoxes and injustices."

My husband is more of the second type (graceful) and I am more of the first (mortality anxious).

I have long felt an urge to more concentrated attention to spiritual seeking, but have trouble actually getting devoted about it. This book made me think about that again and the development I could do...