Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 62
June 9, 2014
Practicing Piano, 1979…and you can see how overjoyed I am about it! A lovely…
Practicing Piano, 1979…and you can see how overjoyed I am about it!
A lovely relative sent me this photo yesterday of me, age 10, relishing my piano practicing. God, I hated doing it. But I always credit my mother with MAKING me do it, though heaven knows it would've been easier for her to have just given up on me. But nope — that kitchen timer would come out, and I would have to sit there and practice till my time was up.
I guess they call that "building character"?
I think one of the greatest skills in life (especially if you want to be a creative person) is learning how to sit through boring things. These days when I'm writing and it isn't going well, it STILL feels like I'm ten years old and practicing the piano.
Gotta do it, anyhow. Get out that kitchen timer. Do it till it's done. Repeat, repeat, repeat….
ONWARD,
LG
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June 8, 2014
HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY, EVERYONE… Heart, LG
HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY, EVERYONE…
Heart,
LG
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June 7, 2014
A relic from 2001… I’ve been packing up some things in my house and I found t…
A relic from 2001…
I've been packing up some things in my house and I found this photo that my friend took of me in, back when I was going through my divorce. We'd gone off for a day to the beach, to try to uplift the mood a bit. (The mood was ROUGH, man. Really rough.) She gave me this photo later and I wrote that Shakespeare quote on it. (Back before Facebook, we had to write our own quotes down on real pictures with actual magic markers!) I kept this with me as a reminder, and it was helpful in dark times. Also, it turned out to be true.
Sending love,
LG
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June 6, 2014
Dear Ones — I overheard a friend of mine say this to his daughter the other day…
Dear Ones —
I overheard a friend of mine say this to his daughter the other day, as she was sitting at the dinner table, complaining about the meal, complaining about her day, complaining about her school…
IT'S NOT WHAT YOU HATE THAT MAKES YOU AN INTERESTING PERSON, BUT WHAT YOU LOVE.
I thought it was beautiful and wise — and excellent parenting, by the way! It also completely changed the tone of the evening, and led the conversation in a wildly unexpected direction. We all went around the table and talked about what we love (even the previously complaining girl) and indeed, we all suddenly seemed a hell of a lot more interesting.
So I thought it would be cool today if we all wrote down, just off the tops of our heads, what we love.
Don't overthink it — just throw something out there.
I'll start: "I love spending my life in engagement with the mystery of human creativity."
So tell me — what do you love? What makes you interesting?
HEART
LG
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June 5, 2014
FLOWER EXPLOSION! Dear Ones — Last week, I got to speak at the New York Botani…
FLOWER EXPLOSION!
Dear Ones —
Last week, I got to speak at the New York Botanical Garden, which was such a lovely event. Before I went on stage, they gave me a tour of the grounds — including a visit to this special exhibition they've got going on right now called "Groundbreakers", about early women landscapers and garden photographers.
They've recreated the Rockefeller summer garden estate, and if you have a chance, go see it! This is the cottage garden of my dreams. You all know I love ridiculous, indefensible amounts of beauty, and these foxgloves alone made me temporarily lose my mind…
Here's a link, if you want to check it out:
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
HOW TO BE ALONE… A friend of this page reminded me today of this video/poem,…
HOW TO BE ALONE…
A friend of this page reminded me today of this video/poem, which is so beautiful, so touching, so wise, and related to our discussion on this page yesterday. I love every single moment of this little film, and I hope you will, too.
And thank you everyone for your kindness and openness yesterday, sharing your thoughts and feelings about loneliness with each other.
I love you guys.
LG
A video by fiilmaker, Andrea Dorfman, and poet/singer/songwriter, Tanya Davis. Davis wrote the beautiful poem and performed in the video which Dorfman direct…
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June 4, 2014
LONELINESS Dear Ones – A friend of this page asked me the other day how I have…
LONELINESS
Dear Ones -
A friend of this page asked me the other day how I have coped with extreme loneliness in my life.
I wonder if I might open up this question to the rest of you — to perhaps help others who are struggling with this great sorrow?
In my worst and loneliest times (post-divorce, mid-depression) the only thing I ever found that helped was magical thinking.
It might have been completely delusional, but there were times in my depths of loneliness when I was able to summon up the sense of an interior companion — a friend, a guide, a teacher — someone whom I could believe was with always with me, always inside me.
I used to write letters to myself from that invisible interior friend. I carried those letters, and that friend, with me everywhere. Every day, I wrote to myself from my friend. I wrote in the most loving, compassionate voice I could summon. I leaned into this idea until I came to deeply believe in it. The Sufi poets always wrote their poems to the figure they called "THE FRIEND" — something like God, something like the soul, something like the self, something like the ideal mother, like the partner you have always dreamed of meeting.
Children know the importance of this, which is why they invent imaginary friends. I've read that people on abandoned on lifeboats often report that, weeks into their lonely journey, they felt they were joined by another person. Polar explorers report this, too — a presence, a companion.
Maybe it's delusion, but maybe it isn't. Maybe there is a presence with you…
I'm not talking about madness, or the hearing of dangerous psychotic voices. I'm talking about cultivating a sense of love and tenderness toward the self, when nobody else is there to offer it.
I've attached here an excerpt from Eat, Pray, Love — from one of the letters I wrote to myself in my loneliest moments.
It helped. It always helped.
I hope this helps you…
And if anyone else has thoughts or strategies or kindness to offer here, please do!
All love,
LG
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June 3, 2014
JUST TWO MORE WEEKS!!! The lovely paperback of SOAT is coming in only 14 days,…
JUST TWO MORE WEEKS!!!
The lovely paperback of SOAT is coming in only 14 days, dear ones!
And I'll be heading off on book tour!
Click here to see my travel schedule, and come see me!
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
June 2, 2014
I love this story a friend sent me about a very notorious 19th century woman nam…
I love this story a friend sent me about a very notorious 19th century woman named Lola Montez — who was born with the name "ELIZA GILBERT"!
Oh, if only we are related, how happy that would make me….
And if only Alma could have had nearly as much fun as this wild chick had!
Notorious Lola Montez kept the men in S.F. panting
www.sfgate.com
[...] her erotic exploits, political intrigues, violent temper and extraordinary beauty had made headlines throughout the world. Who became the lover of the famous virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt? Who moved on to Paris, taking the City of Light by storm and taking a swashbuckling French journalist into…
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