Committed

by Elizabeth Gilbert

destiny’s interventions can sometimes be read as invitations for us to address and even surmount our biggest fears.

the happier twin sister of loneliness: privacy.

because people everywhere love each other and always have. Romantic love is a universal human

“Plant an expectation; reap a disappointment.”

The problem, simply put, is that we cannot choose everything simultaneously. So we live in danger of becoming paralyzed by indecision, terrified that every choice might be the wrong choice.

while human hearts make many promises, human minds can change.

And a shared private heaven can quickly descend into a failed private hell.

An old Polish adage warns: “Before going to war, say one prayer. Before going to sea, say two prayers. Before getting married, say three.”

The Buddha taught that all human suffering is rooted in desire.

This is the singular fantasy of human intimacy: that one plus one will somehow, someday, equal one.

Immanuel Kant believed that we humans, because we are so emotionally complex, go through two puberties in life. The first puberty is when our bodies become mature enough for sex; the second puberty is when our minds become mature enough for sex.

Seduction works full-time as Desire’s handmaiden:

People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each other’s personalities. Who wouldn’t? Anybody can love the most wonderful parts of another person. But that’s not the clever trick. The really clever trick is this: Can you accept the flaws? Can you look at your partner’s faults honestly and say, ‘I can work around that. I can make something out of that.’? Because the good stuff is always going to be there, and it’s always going to be pretty and sparkly, but the crap underneath can ruin you.”

To be fully seen by somebody, then, and to be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on the miraculous.

A peculiar feeling of composure and harmony usually settles on me when I’m moving solo through a new landscape