Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 78
April 1, 2014
OPRAH TIME! Attention: Atlanta, Auburn Hills, Washington DC, Newark, Houston, M…
OPRAH TIME!
Attention: Atlanta, Auburn Hills, Washington DC, Newark, Houston, Miami, Seattle and San Jose!
Oprah and I (and a bunch of other amazing speakers, musicians and inspirational trailblazers) are coming to see you this autumn!
Join us for this eight-city THE LIFE YOU WANT tour…it is certain to be amazing. I know it will be for me!
There are only a few more days left to buy tickets before they are offered to the general public.
Just click on my website, find the city you like, and register by using this special code, for my readers only:
LYWWEG
See you there, gorgeousnesses!
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT, BROOKLYN! Dear Ones — If you’re around the NYC area, c…
SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT, BROOKLYN!
Dear Ones —
If you're around the NYC area, come out and see me and my friend Rayya Elias speaking tomorrow night at Brooklyn Powerhouse! It's going to be LOVELY…
Details here:
Heart,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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April went to visit Alma’s tree at the Hortus Botanical Gardens in Amsterdam! Th…
April went to visit Alma's tree at the Hortus Botanical Gardens in Amsterdam! This makes me so happy!!!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
I traveled from Connecticut to Amsterdam to see Alma's tree. And yes, we were both a long way from home! Thank you Elizabeth Gilbert for writing yet another novel that spoke to me as I journey onward. Genius 
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March 31, 2014
TICKETS TO OPRAH!!!! Dear Ones — This is an incredibly exciting announcement!…
TICKETS TO OPRAH!!!!
Dear Ones —
This is an incredibly exciting announcement!
I have been invited to join Oprah Winfrey this autumn on an eight-city speaking tour across the United States called THE LIFE YOU WANT…and it’s going to be amazing!
Oprah has gathered together a collection of people she calls “life trailblazers” to create eight weekend-long extravaganzas of transformation, inspiration, self-discovery and joy.
I am so honored to be part of this, I can’t even tell you.
You know why I’m honored? Because, you guys, check it out: EIGHT CITY SPEAKING TOUR WITH OPRAH WINFREY!!!!
And today I can offer you tickets before they go on sale to the general public!
Just visit 
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in glorious Rio!
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in glorious Rio!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
"The signature of all things" in my reading table – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS next to (appropriately enough, narratively-speaking)…
THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS next to (appropriately enough, narratively-speaking) a waterfall!
Photos of Elizabeth Gilbert
Finally my own SOAT! Alma and I visited a beautiful place, Prismas Basálticos, in Hidalgo, México. Hope you can visit us soon.
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HAPPY READING! heart, LG
HAPPY READING!
heart,
LG
via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall
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March 30, 2014
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER! Hey all — A big announcement and special offer is c…
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER!
Hey all —
A big announcement and special offer is coming tomorrow and those of you who are subscribers to my LizNews newsletter will be the first to know…so if you haven't signed up yet, sign up now!
You can do so by clicking the LizNews button at the top of this page, or by going to my website and signing up there:
Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is it maybe time to stop asking for permission? One of the…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is it maybe time to stop asking for permission?
One of the luckiest breaks of my life was to have been raised by an anti-authoritarian father. In many ways, my dad lived (and still lives) the normal, stable, respectable life of a good citizen. He is a Navy veteran who worked the same job for 30 years, has been married to the same woman for almost 50 years, has lived in the same house since 1973. But underneath that veneer of respectability, there lies a man who quietly does whatever the hell he wants. A man who has no respect for professionals or degrees. A man who, for better or worse, does not necessarily believe that you need permits in order to do work around your own property. A man who does not believe in experts, but in taking action for himself, no matter the result. A man who does not even really believe in doctors, but is very happy to let his seamstress wife stitch up an injury, if it saves the trip to the hospital. A man who decided he wanted to raise bees and Christmas trees, figured out how it was done, and became a beekeeper and a Christmas tree farmer — just through the decisive action of going for it.
And then there was my mother: A woman who believed that she could make, sew, grow, knit, paint, create anything she needed. She fed her entire family out of her massive garden, made all of our clothes, raised the goats who brought us milk, wallpapered her own living room. And also did not believe in seeking the opinion of experts, or being impressed by degrees, or bowing to the necessity of permits or certification.
They also did not believe in accumulating stuff that they did not need, or driving fancy cars to impress anyone, or dressing in a way that signified social status.
They were not hippies. They were definitely not punks, though I feel like there was something decided punk-rock about their willful resistance to consumer conformity. They were not artists, so to speak. They were simply really self-reliant people. And if they wanted something done, they just damn did it. Sometimes, admittedly, that stubbornness of theirs veered into the realm of slight social pathology, but mostly I think it was really cool.
Honestly, more than anything else, I think this example of quietly impudent self-action is where I got the idea to just go out in the world and be a writer. It never occurred to me to ask anybody whether I could be a writer. People in my family never asked anybody's permission to make or be the things that they wanted to create or become. It never occurred to me to go get a master's degree in creative writing. My mother did not have a master's degree in gardening, but she made a really bad ass garden.
You guys, we live in an age where professionalism has never been more respected. But I still don't really respect it. Especially when it comes to being any kind of an artist. I simply do not believe that you need a permission slip from the principal to live a creative life. Go online and look at the statistics for how many Nobel Prize-winning authors finished college. Then see how many of them even finished high school. You might be surprised. You know what they did? They just made their thing.
Don't wait for anybody in any position of authority to grant you some sort of certification to begin creating, inventing, producing.
Just do what my mom did when she commenced her garden: Get a shovel and start digging. Shovels are cheap. So is writing paper. So are watercolors. So is melody.
Start making your thing.
Today feels like a good day for it,
LG
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