Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 25

Can we all send love and light today to Stephanie, for her incredible journey ou…

Can we all send love and light today to Stephanie, for her incredible journey out of brain surgery and back into herself? This is so beautiful. Blessings to you, Stephanie, and thank you for taking Alma with you as you recovered!

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Finally I finished.

3 long months ago I sat in a pre-op room waiting for surgery to remove a brain tumor. Nine days prior, I had surgery to remove half a tumor ridden thyroid. As I waited, I tried to read to calm my nerves. Five pages, then I was wheeled away. A week later I tried, but could not read. Two weeks, then three. Little by little I read…sometimes requiring the page to be read 3 times to retain it. Here I sit three months later with 500 beautiful, challenging pages behind me. Alma & I took quite a journey. She will forever be with me.

Thank you dear Elizabeth Gilbert.

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A beautiful photo of THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in one of my favorite hometowns…

A beautiful photo of THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in one of my favorite hometowns — Sydney, Australia! (I have a handful of favorite "hometowns" in my life, and this is definitely one of them.) Thank you, dear one!

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From Sydney, Australia with

I love your books Elizabeth, they take my busy mind to another beautiful place. A lovely escape! x

Thankyou

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ALLOW YOURSELF TO HEAL Dear Ones – Here’s a photo of me and the poet Mark Nepo…

ALLOW YOURSELF TO HEAL

Dear Ones -

Here's a photo of me and the poet Mark Nepo yesterday, backstage at in Washington DC. I heard him say something truly magnificent and transformative yesterday, so I wanted to share it here with you this morning.

The question was about how to make peace with your own past. How to forgive, how to move on.

Mark began his answer by speaking candidly about his painful relationship with his parents, particularly with his father. There was so much suffering, so much anger. After his father died, he still held on for years to that outrage, that pain. By doing so, he kept those old wounds open.

He said, "Then I realized something. I was keeping my old wounds fresh and open, as evidence for a trial that would never come."

He further explained: "It was as if I was waiting for some big Law & Order episode to happen in my life someday, where I would be able to finally lay out my case against my father to a judge and jury. So I didn't want to let the old wounds heal, because — if they did — then I wouldn't have fresh evidence, and nobody would believe how much I had suffered. But then I finally realized — that day of trial, that day in court? It will never come. There is no such thing in life as that courtroom. Which meant that I was keeping my old wounds open for no good reason at all, when all those wounds really wanted was to be allowed to heal."

With that understanding, the healing began at last.

I love the deep goodness and humanity of Mark Nepo.

ONWARD,
LG

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BEST. PHOTOBOMB. EVER. :) So THIS happened today in Washington DC at the Oprah…

BEST. PHOTOBOMB. EVER.

So THIS happened today in Washington DC at the !

Rob Bell and I (who share a mutual disbelief that we get to be part of this spectacle of glory at all) decided to take a selfie while on stage, to try to capture the sense of the giant arena behind us.

Then Oprah jumped in and photobombed us!

This is the sort of spirit that's happening all over the place in this event — the spontaneity, the sheer joy of it all, the absurd amount of gratitude and grace, and (best of all) the flat-out fun.

You know what? It should be fun.

Because if your spiritual and personal journey doesn't have any fun in it, then you ain't doing it right! Listen closer. God wants you to live in joy.

Bliss and love, and love and bliss…and ONWARD,

LG

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PINK DRESS MAKES HER DEBUT TODAY! OK, my lovelies — I’m heading off to Oprah’s…

PINK DRESS MAKES HER DEBUT TODAY!

OK, my lovelies — I'm heading off to in our nation's capital…and because it's Washington DC, I decided to totally represent with the cherry blossom motif.

Hope you like it!

ONWARD!
LG

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Amazing grace in action, tonight in Washington DC. So grateful to be near (and…

Amazing grace in action, tonight in Washington DC.

So grateful to be near (and part of) all this greatness.

See you tomorrow, !

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Dear Ones – The other day, a brilliant friend of mine let me read the first dra…

Dear Ones -

The other day, a brilliant friend of mine let me read the first draft of a book she's been working on for years. It was wonderful. But that's not what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is what happened AFTER I told her how wonderful her book was. She sent me a long email detailing all her fears about how bad her book actually is, and about how nobody will like it, and that it's overly simplistic, and critics will call it self-indulgent, and that I'm just being polite when I say that it's good.

(To reiterate, her book is GREAT.)

Normally, I would have responded with a long, tender, compassionate letter — trying to convince her once again of her talents, and of my support and faith in her.

But I was tired and in a hurry. So instead, I just wrote the truth.

I wrote this:

"Listen, honey — I read through all your anxieties and your fears here. And I just have to say something very bluntly: Your fears about your book aren't very interesting or very original! I can say this with complete authority, because they are exactly the same fears that I have, whenever I am about to release a book into the world. And I know for a fact that my fears are not interesting at all. (Like yours, my fears alway sing this familiar, droning old song: 'Your work is garbage, it will be criticized as self-indulgent, it's too simplistic, it has no value, nobody will buy it, your friends are only being nice to you when they say it's good, you just wasted a whole bunch of time for no good reason, you are done for and washed-up').

"Moreover, I have it on good authority that these are exactly the same fears that EVERYONE who has ever finished a book (or created anything) feels. In other words, your fears are just regular old mass-produced, made-in-China, sold-at-Walmart fears. Nothing fine or precious or artisanal about them. So don't treat them like they're precious.

"I realized this about my own fears a few years ago — that they are always exactly the same, and that they are always exactly the same as everyone else's, and therefore they are nothing special and actually just kind of boring. (I want to say to my fears sometimes, "Really? That's the best you can come up with? This old song again? REALLY — you're telling me once again that I'm not good enough? That my work isn't good enough? That's it? That's seriously the best you got, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS? Jeez, get some new material, dude.")

"So now I just come to expect those completely boring and unoriginal fears to show up every time I write anything, and I don't even pay attention to them anymore, because they never have anything new to say. They're just the neighbor's dogs, barking incessantly in the yard next door, blah blah blah. But they never bite. They can never escape the yard. They have no real power. So I just move ahead and do my work. There's that old Bedouin line: 'The dogs bark; the caravan passes anyhow.' Your caravan needs to pass along now on its journey, whether fear barks at you loudly or not. It's time.

"Because here is what IS interesting and original: This book that you just wrote. And here is what else is interesting and original: Whatever is about to happen in your life next, when you send that book out to publishers. Because god only knows what will happen. Could be good, could be bad. We have no idea. Because the future is a mystery And mysteries — unlike fears — are always interesting. So let's focus on the interesting parts (the creativity and the mystery) and forget about the fear. Time to be stubbornly brave, and dignified in the face of any fate."

So that was my letter, and my friend said it made her laugh (which is good, because I was a little afraid it might make her cry)…and since laughter is good, now I'm sharing the letter with you all.

In summation: Your creativity is fascinating, but your fears are not.

(Spoken from somebody who REALLY knows what she's talking about — because she has the most boring fears in the world, and she does her work, anyhow.)

Now go make your thing.

ONWARD,
LG

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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS on a nice walkabout in Oz…

THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS on a nice walkabout in Oz…

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Out and about in Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia. ????

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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS and Maria’s brand new house! Hooray, Maria!

THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS and Maria's brand new house! Hooray, Maria!

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Not a great view but we've just moved in today to our first house in London – and The Signature of All Things arrived on the same day!!

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That’s right, babies.

That's right, babies.

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