In 2007, When I first met my husband Marcos on the Obama campaign, we took off on a weekend to Malibu to visit his brother. This was pretty early in the relationship. Marcos didn’t know that I imagined walking/running off the plane because I used to have an absurd fear of flying or that I went shopping before the trip just to look extra cute for the 48 hours we would be spending in CA. I was 23 but I felt 43 and 13 at the same time. At that point I was feeling pressure of adulthood. I was also on the precipice of a big adventure and the world was simultaneously full of possibility and fear.
As we laid on the beach in Malibu I was reading Eat Pray Love. Elizabeth Gilbert’s words spoke to me, and millions of others, about taking risks for love and for your happiness. Everyone was obsessed with this book but my response felt private and personal. Her words made me feel brave and okay. She messed up and I felt like I could mess up and I might even one day write a novel about it so it’s all good. The book helped me realize that you should never being afraid to just do what you gotta do.
(In my case, it was finding, trusting, and marrying this man named Marcos)
These quotes from Eat Pray Love are wise, and funny, and true for me:
“In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
“There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
“You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
“I’m choosing happiness over suffering, I know I am. I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
and so something I would have said (Me and Liz could be BFFs)
“Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it’s what you want before you commit.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray,
I am honored to write about the upcoming book Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It- Life Journey’s Inspired by the Bestselling Memoir. The book features a woman from Denver! and several other women who set out on life changing adventures inspired by Eat Pray Love. To feel present, to feel brave, to feel authentically you, requires risk. This book will help you feel like much much more is possible for you.
Elizabeth Gilbert will be at the Paramount on May 5th!!!!! I will be blogging from the event. Please join and we can all sit together and then get cocktails and obsess over it afterwards.
See you there! Also, read Eat Pray Love again and then hop on Amazon and buy the anthology Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It: Life Journey’s Inspired by the Bestselling Memoir
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