Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 96

I’m so happy Monika was inspired to go search for a photo of Matavai Bay in Tahi…

I'm so happy Monika was inspired to go search for a photo of Matavai Bay in Tahiti…Alma's home. I went there for research for the novel, because these are the sorts of sacrifices one must make for art! Beautiful…

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Dear Elizabeth, I couldn't helped myself. I needed to look for a picture of Matavai Bay on the Internet. I just wanted to see the beauty of this place with my own eyes (my imagination is also very good as well, I must say). So here is Matavai Bay!. I hope to visit Tahiti some day and walk on this very same beach just as Alma did :). Regards from Miami! Thank you for writing this book. I look forward to your next one.

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Photos of Elizabeth GilbertDear Elizabeth, I couldn'...

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Dear Elizabeth, I couldn't helped myself. I needed to look for a picture of Matavai Bay on the Internet. I just wanted to see the beauty of this place with my own eyes (my imagination is also very good as well, I must say). So here is Matavai Bay!. I hope to visit Tahiti some day and walk on this very same beach just as Alma did :). Regards from Miami! Thank you for writing this book. I look forward to your next one.

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A balm to those of us in the cold…THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in sunny, sexy M…

A balm to those of us in the cold…THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS in sunny, sexy Miami!

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"The Signature of All Things" in sunny Miami, Florida!

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A HAPPINESS JAR at work in the real world…blessings, Lauren!

A HAPPINESS JAR at work in the real world…blessings, Lauren!

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Hi Liz,

I am so glad to have the opportunity to interact with you here on Facebook. You continue to inspire me all the time. I am a new In-Home Counselor and must be creative with my interventions. This is a picture of one of my amazing clients whose homework is to fill his Happiness Jar daily. He loves football and dogs as you can see

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Happy reading! :)

Happy reading!

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A friend of this page named Penny sent this to me yesterday, and I’m still laugh…

A friend of this page named Penny sent this to me yesterday, and I'm still laughing about it.

It also blew my mind.

Because this reminds me of a story I haven't thought about in years. When I was a bartender at Coyote Ugly back in 1993, there was a customer who used to come in and cause all sorts of disruptions. She was an attractive and completely sane-looking businesswoman, who would enter the bar, calmly order a drink…and then order another…and then by the third drink, she would undergo an Exorcist-like transformation to a screaming, spitting, aggressive demon.

Of course, after a few such outbursts, she was given notice that she was forbidden to enter the bar…but the problem was, these two sides of her identity (sane/insane) were so different from each other that she was unrecognizable in each form. Which means that sometimes she would sneak into the bar and calmly order a few drinks before any of us realized it was HER.

So one day I'm working, and she comes in all smiling and elegant, and I completely didn't recognize her, and I served her a few drinks, and she started to transform into her Mr. Hyde version of herself right before my eyes. I managed to catch on right before she started spitting and screaming, so I took her hand gently and said in a low voice, "You know that you can't stay in this bar, right? You know that you have to leave now, right?"

With great dignity (and to my surprise) she stood up to make her exit without protest. But right before she walked out of the place, she turned around to face me. And with a tired expression, and in a completely calm and weary voice, she said, "If I had known how much trouble it was going to cause me to be your guardian angel, I never would've taken the job in the first place."

AND THEN SHE WALKED OUT — never to return!

And I was like: WHAT THE FUCK???!!!!!!! Did I just throw out my guardian angel?!!!

It freaked me out then and it freaks me out still. Those were really tumultuous years in my life (and a lot of the tumult started at that bar) and the airy-fairy superstitious side of me can't help but wonder if she really HAD been sent to protect me — and if she was just trying to cause distractions to keep me from taking certain ill-advised actions. (Because I damn sure took a lot of ill-advised actions in those days.) And I definitely needed a guardian angel back then. Even a drunk one.

Or maybe she was just nuts.

Or maybe I was?

Wild, right?

Any thoughts?

Years later, when I met Richard from Texas, who really did become my guardian angel, I would think, "Of course my protector is a recovering alcoholic and junkie…" Somehow it just made an odd kind of sense, that someone who'd been cracked and broken by life would be so full of just the kind of light and wisdom I needed.

Of course now I have to ask — have you ever met your guardian angel? At a bar, maybe? On a bus? In some odd place, never to be expected?

If not, just enjoy this goofy post.

Love,
LG

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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS has fallen into the hands of a happy reader in Ontar…

THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS has fallen into the hands of a happy reader in Ontario! Enjoy, Sara!

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Finally took my SOAT picture! Much love from London, Ontario loving it so far!! Sara x

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Breakfast in bed and good old Eat Pray Love…thank you, Alison!

Breakfast in bed and good old Eat Pray Love…thank you, Alison!

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Good morning from Australia! It's a national holiday here, so I'm taking the opportunity to spend some time with an old friend. And eat breakfast in bed!

Julie’s JOY JAR — her interpretation of the HAPPINESS JARS we always talk about…

Julie's JOY JAR — her interpretation of the HAPPINESS JARS we always talk about on this page. I love her point that, once you start paying attention, it becomes difficult to narrow it down to just one best moment of the day…so wonderful!

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Hi Elizabeth! I just wanted to share what I call my Joy Jar, named after your happiness jars! I started it on Jan. 1st and noticed within a few short weeks, how it has become so difficult to pinpoint one single moment of joy in my day! There are several times that I have numerous things scribbled on a little piece of paper as the highlights of my day. Thank you for this suggestion of doing a Happiness Jar, and most importantly, thank you for allowing me to see that the more I count my blessings, the more blessings I have to count! <3

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“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Hap…

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Happy Birthday, Virginia Woolf! Born this very day, 1882.

What do you all think of this, Ms Woolf's most famous statement?

I had written two books already before I ever had a room of my own for writing. But I always managed to find a quiet corner somewhere, and I always felt I had my own money — even when I was a diner waitress, and it wasn't much. (Childhood lessons in frugality helped. Thanks to my upbringing, what I never had was debt, even when I was living on a shoestring, and I think that mattered. I think that made me feel free.)

What I always longed for most, though, was TIME — precious hours, undisturbed, in which to think and write at length…and that great luxury came only very recently to my life. I don't think many women in history have gotten enough creative time…

What about you? All of you who create? What do you long for? What do you think you need? What can you live without? What stops you up, and what brings you forth?

LG

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