eat, pray, love "indonesia"

i finished the third and final part of eat, pray, love this morning. i could have finished it sooner, but wanted to make it last as long as i could. these quotes are from the last part, about elizabeth's journey to indonesia to find balance.

"'Some people like to argue about God.'
'Not necessary,' he said, 'I have good idea, for it you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to everything this man say about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion.' (pg 241)"

why is it so hard for us humans to abstain from arguing? we always have to be right, we always have to prove someone else wrong. it's pride. and it is the saddest problem in our world today. if people let go of their pride, wars would cease, love would abound, and there would be peace.


"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enought to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments. (pg 260)"

i have a best friend who once told me, "your happiness depends on you." and he is so right. we have to choose to be happy, and then work towards it. it is up to us, not anyone else, to be happy.


"If I am to truly become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian. Famously, Gloria Steinem once advised women that they should strive to become like the men they had always wanted to marry. (pg 286)"

i love this. and i so believe it to be true. woman are always complaining that their husband/boyfriend doesn't give them enough attention, aren't working enough, aren't considerate, and ultimately not perfect. who are we to complain about it, if we aren't any of those things either? sometimes, if we want to be happy, we have to take control and be exactly the type of person we want to date. then we become happy with our choices, and realize that sometimes we DON'T need a man to make us happy. we only need ourselves.


"Yet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years--I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue. (pg 329)"

this quote is at the end of the book, where elizabeth has found balance and is reflecting on her year abroad. it was not felipe coming into her life that had finally healed her, it was her future self that had saved her. it was the future elizabeth inside begging her to become what she knew she was meant to be.

i know that my future self gives me advice, and pushes me along during the moments of loneliness and sadness. i can, and will, be the administrator of my own rescue.

thank you, elizabeth gilbert, for sharing your most intimate thoughts in this wonderful memoir of your life. i would recommend this book to anyone who feels like they may have lost sight of themselves, and to anyone who feels like they need a little more balance in their lives.