Three weeks ago, while in Seoul, I watched the movie “Eat, Pray, Love.” As soon as I got back home to Dague, I had an unusual craving to eat a whole bowl of pasta, painted red from tomatoes, green from basil, and white from garlic and onions. I stood in my kitchen and toiled away at a sauce recipe that I had magically just come up with. Guess what? It was perfect in its own rustic sort of way. It filled my hunger more so because it was my creation, and my creation was filled with inspiration.
Friday this past week, I went to the bookstore and decided to buy my own copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love.” Normally I would download it in my Kindle, but I wanted to do it the old fashion way. Plus, I love flipping the pages and smelling that wonderful pressed paper. Weird huh? Well, I wanted to read it. Habitually, I would read a book first before seeing the movie. This weekend, I sat in my bedroom and began the book with such discipline; it was as if I was in an Ashram in India, just like what Gilbert had experienced. Guess what? After washing away distractions and continuously telling myself that this is what I needed, I finished the novel by Saturday ~ less than 48 hours! This is the kind of inspirational thing that can pin me down for a while ~ the girl who loves to be given the time and space to do something that she really wanted.
After I finished I thought to myself, whenever I have a second, I want to go back to the book (with not so much as a crack in its spine) and re-read the passages that I carefully tabbed with little pink, sticky strips (and believe me, there are a lot. HAHAHAHA, I might as well just read the book again). I planned to fall in love and write about her ideas, witty thoughts, dreams, and experiences and feel inspired all over again. Guess what? I’ve already started. In fact, I already started writing about it right after I read the book. I end up with Part 1 and Part 2.
Eat, Pray, Love is an intensely articulate, sensible, moving and funny memoir of self-discovery. It is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment. It is also about the adventures that can transpire when a woman stops trying to live in the imitation of society’s ideals. This is a story certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change. This book makes you feel inspired to do what she did, even if it’s not on the same road she took. This book sort of gives you a self-starting catapult to start you on your journey. You want to eat a bowlful of pasta and not worry about carbohydrates? Do it. You want to sit still and have a somewhat of a sensory overload, while at the same giving yourself the peace and quiet you need? Go for it. You want to read a book that will motivate you to be a better person? Please do. Basically, do you want to give yourself the chance to ENJOY something that may be bigger than yourself? Not to get all existential or anything but really, how long do we actually have?
There is a passage in the book that I particularly like where Gilbert describes the Augesteum in Rome. It was once big and beautiful, but has since fallen to bits and has become rather lonely. She says, “I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough–but tomorrow I may be a fireworks depository. Even in the Eternal City, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.”
And just a quick and simple thought, I realized that we must always be prepared for the unexpected. So, we better start doing things we want to do now. The future may not always be there.
~Ella~
