Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 40
August 11, 2014
August 10, 2014
True love: “WRONG FOR ME IN JUST THE RIGHT WAY…” A reader of this page sent m…
True love: "WRONG FOR ME IN JUST THE RIGHT WAY…"
A reader of this page sent me a link to this passage about love, written by the poet Galway Kinnell, and I wanted to share it with you all.
(In case you have trouble reading the post, you can find the full text here, as well: http://bit.ly/1yjolPu)
Oh, how I wish I'd known about this quote when I wrote COMMITTED, my memoir about marriage. This is one of the most wise and generous statements I've ever seen about what real, flawed, intimacy between mature human beings looks like.
I adore the line about needing to find someone who is wrong for you in just the right way. But what really made my eyes spark with tears was the bit about looking at somebody and thinking, "This is the problem I want to have."
Because intimacy will bring you problems. Guaranteed. People are not just sacred bits of old stardust wandering around earth, we are also brilliant creators of trouble — each and every one of us. But to love someone (anyone: a partner, a friend, a child, a parent, a pet) is to look at them with infinite tenderness, in all their outrageous difficulty and supreme pain-in-the-assdom, and to think, forever, "This is the problem I want to have."
Someone who is all wrong for you in just the right way; a problem who is absolutely worth your trouble — this is love.
Have a beautiful Sunday, everyone.
Heart,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS and a perfect summer lake…
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS and a perfect summer lake…
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Saved this gem for my summer vacay on the lake! Well worth the wait – your writing delights & inspires! Thanks so much, dear Elizabeth!!
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Greece. Oh, Greece, Greece, Greece…have I menti…
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Greece. Oh, Greece, Greece, Greece…have I mentioned how much I long to visit Greece?
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Hello from Porto Katsiki, Lefkada, Greece!!!
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Romania!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in Romania!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
"The Signature Of All Things" read in Constanta, Romania too!
I love your books! Summer holiday wouldn't have been so inspiring and joyful without them! Hugs and greetings!
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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August 9, 2014
Nerdmaste, continued….”MOST IN SHOW” Dear Ones – I LOVED our giant Nerd Shar…
Nerdmaste, continued…."MOST IN SHOW"
Dear Ones –
I LOVED our giant Nerd Share yesterday on this page, and your stories about all your own nerdiest moments delighted me to no end. All I can say is: I would've sat next to each one of you at lunch. We would've talked about Nancy Drew while the food fight raged around us.
Also, your stories reminded me of my nerdiest moment — the souvenirs of which I still keep to this day (NERD PRIDE.)
When I was 10 years old, I decided that I wanted to win BEST IN SHOW at our local 4-H country fair. I spent the entire summer making about 100 different items to enter into the Home Show contest. I baked, I sewed, I grew vegetables, I did macrame, I knitted a baby blanket, I made pickles, I made an educational poster about goats, I made a diorama about how beans grow, I made a first aid kit out of a shoebox for your car, I did some seashell art, and I even made — as you can see by this photo — "T.P. Flowers", which are, of course, flowers made out of toilet paper. And more.
I didn't see much of my friends that summer, as I was so committed to making entries for the fair, and so focused on winning BEST IN SHOW (as I knew I must, just by the law of averages) for one of my many magnificent creations.
Sadly, however, I did not win BEST IN SHOW. This is because life is cruel and unfair. Another kid won that coveted giant purple ribbon — in the dessert category. I don't even want to talk about it. (Ok, let's talk about it: You guys, I had made a cake shaped like a CASTLE, with a tin foil moat, and pillow mint crenels, and ice cream cone towers. How can you beat that with mere baklava? Seriously.)
I was shattered. Inconsolable. But then, by late in the afternoon, some adults took mercy on me. Some compassionate judge noticed that it appeared that one child had made about 1/3 of the entries in the entire Home Show. He or she must have thought, "Oh dear God, that poor little tragic nerd."
So they invented a new award, just for me. It was called: MOST IN SHOW.
Not best, mind you. MOST.
It still makes me laugh.
But I was so incredibly proud.
I've kept my clutch of ribbons from that day forever, because I think there's some kind of giant life lesson in there. I think this might have been the day I realized that I might never be BEST IN SHOW…but, damn it, I could always be MOST.
I've strived to be MOST IN SHOW ever since then — to show up for life as fully and passionately as I can. And believe me, I am in this show just as hard and as much and as often as I can possibly be in it. You give me a category for life, I'll make you a item — or at least I'll try.
The kid with the perfect baklava might still win every time, but I'll always be the girl who was awake at 2am, macrame-ing my ass to the couch, trying to make something — anything! — just to be in the show.
Because I love the show.
NERDS FOREVER,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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#1 IN TAIWAN! So, THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is the #1 bestseller in Taiwan ri…
#1 IN TAIWAN!
So, THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS is the #1 bestseller in Taiwan right now. (Or, at least, that is what I have been told this says.) How very lovely…thank you, Taiwan!
Heart,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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I love a good outdoor library… :)
I love a good outdoor library… 
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
I adore your work. Thank you so much — at Massie- Home.
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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August 8, 2014
I bow to you all this morning, my beautiful fellow nerds! Are you, like me, so…
I bow to you all this morning, my beautiful fellow nerds!
Are you, like me, someone who always asked for extra homework?
Did you lay your clothes out for school the night before?
In class, did the teacher sort of look through you every time your hand was up, and then say, "Does anyone ELSE want to answer the question?"
Were you liable, as an 8-year-old, to tell an adult, "Actually, the correct way to say it is 'I COULDN'T care less'"?
Did you never get in trouble, except for sometimes when you got caught reading in bad light?
Did you ever skip school your junior year of high school, so you could stay home and finish reading a Hemingway novel THAT WAS NOT EVEN ASSIGNED FOR CLASS?
Do you like reading books about moss?
Then you are my kind of nerd, my friend. And I bow to you.
Share your nerdiest moment here today, in honor of our supreme nerditude!
Heart,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS reaches Japan, Part Two!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS reaches Japan, Part Two!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Liz ~ Loving your book in Yokohama, Japan. Thank you!
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