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repeatedly give up their own health or their own time or their own best interests on behalf of what they perceive as the greater good--perhaps in order to consistently reinforce an imperative sense of specialness, of chosenness, of connection.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Music is nothing more than decoration for the imagination. That
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The Balinese don't wait and see "how things go." That would be terrifying. They organize how things go, in order to keep things from falling apart."
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organization
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Lastly, she knew one other thing, and this was the most important realization of all: she knew that the world was plainly divided into those who fought an unrelenting battle to live, and those who surrendered and died. This was a simple fact. This
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Most of my writing life consist of nothing more than unglamorous, disciplined labor. I sit at my desk and I work like a farmer, and that's how it gets done.
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live
work
writing
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Though I suppose people do reproduce sometimes for that reason--for insurance against later regret.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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I used to think the 109th bead was an emergency spare. Like the extra button on a fancy sweater, or the youngest son in a royal family.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Dante writes that God is not merely a blinding vision of glorious light, but that He is, most of all, l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle... "The love that moves the sun and the other stars."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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After all, he says, "beauty attracts beauty."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Only through constant focus can you become independent. Only through independence can you know yourself. And only through knowing yourself will you be able to ask the key question of your life: What is is that I am destined to accomplish, and how can I make it happen?
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independence
yourself
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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06caa97
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I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and then I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a vict..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Through the mere act of creating something--anything--you might inadvertently produce work that is magnificent, eternal, or important
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Without bravery, their lives would remain small - far smaller than they probably wanted their lives to be.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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My desire to work--my desire to engage with my creativity as intimately and as freely as possible--is my strongest personal incentive to fight back against pain, by any means necessary, and to fashion a life for myself that is as sane and healthy and stable as it can possibly be. But that's only because of what I have chosen to trust, which is quite simply: love.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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One by one, the thoughts and memories of sadness raised their hands, stood up to identify themselves. I looked at each thought, at each unit of sorrow, and I acknowledged its existence and felt (without trying to protect myself from it) its horrible pain. And then I would tell that sorrow, "It's OK. I love you. I accept you. Come into my heart now. It's over."..."
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life
pain
sadness
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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3bbc749
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We are fiddle, fork, and spoon, We are dancing with the moon, If you'd like to steal a kiss from us, You'd better steal one soon!
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Inspiration is always trying to work with me. So I sit there and I work, too.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Pure creativity is something better than a necessity; it's a gift. It's the frosting. Our creativity is a wild and unexpected bonus from the universe. It's as if all our gods and angels gathered together and said, "It's tough down there as a human being, we know. Here--have some delights."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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incalculable failed experiments." She wrote, "Those who are ill-prepared to endure the battle for survival should perhaps never have attempted living in the first place. The only unforgivable crime is to cut short the experiment of one's own life before its natural end. To do so is a weakness and a pity--for the experiment of life will cut itself off soon enough, in all our cases, and one may just as well have the courage and the curiosity ..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Because creative living is a path for the brave. We all know this. And we all know that when courage dies, creativity dies with it. We all know that fear is a desolate boneyard where our dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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But I was always coming here. I thought about one of my favorite Sufi poems, which says that God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen.
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life
philosophy
spirituality
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2b495ea
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So be lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Sometimes beauty needs a bit of ignoring, to properly come into being.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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most of my prayers are expressions of sheer gratitude for the fullness of my contentment.
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happiness
prayer
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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I work either way, you see - assisted or unassisted - because that is what you must do in order to live a fully creative life. I work steadily, and I always thank the process. Whether I am touched by grace or not, I thank creativity for allowing me to engage with it at all.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once yo..
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life
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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eb440ac
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The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.
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happiness
life
people
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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All the good ideas seem daunting at first.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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in order to let go of the addiction to creative suffering, you must reject the way of the martyr
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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If you tell me slowly, I can understand quickly.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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But if you don't have the courage, let's try to get you some. Because creative living is a path for the brave. We all know this. And we all know that when courage dies, creativity dies with it. We all know that fear is a desolate boneyard where our dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun. This is common knowledge; sometimes we just don't know what to do about it.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The cave was cool and silent- thoroughly carpeted- with the most luxuriant mantle of mosses Alma Whittaker had ever seen. The cave was not merely mossy; it throbbed with moss. It was not merely green; it was frantically green. It was so bright in its verdure that the color nearly spoke, as though- smashing through the world of sight- it wanted to migrate into the world of sound. The moss was a thick, living pelt, transforming every rock sur..
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botany
cave
genus-species
green
horticulture
moss
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The guardians of high culture will try to convince you that the arts belong only to a chosen few, but they are wrong and they are also annoying. We
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The other problem with all this swinging through the vines of thought is that you are never where you are. You are always digging in the past or poking at the future, but rarely do you rest in this moment.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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I thought about the relentless thought-processing, soul-devouring machine that is my brain, and wondered how on earth I was ever going to master it.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Train them to pay attention to their choices. ("Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are good ideas," he would lecture, "but those three concepts should only be the last resort. What you really need to focus on are two other words that also begin with R- Reconsider and Refuse. Before you even acquire the disposable good, ask yourself why you need this consumer product. And then turn it down. Refuse it. You can.")"
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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She did not need a library; she was a library.
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genius
intelligence
learning
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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5be4a4a
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On this day, Eustace was heating iron rods to fix a broken piece on his antique mower. He had a number of irons cooking in his forge at the same time and, distracted by trying to teach me the basics of blacksmithing, he allowed several of them to get too hot, to the point of compromising the strength of the metal. When he saw this, he said, "Damn! I have too many irons in the fire." Which was the first time I had ever heard that expression ..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Think of the many articles one can find every year in the Wall Street Journal describing some entrepreneur or businessman as being a "pioneer" or a "maverick" or a "cowboy." Think of the many times these ambitious modern men are described as "staking their claim" or boldly pushing themselves "beyond the frontier" or even "riding into the sunset." We still use this nineteenth-century lexicon to describe our boldest citizens, but it's really ..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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We all know that fear is a desolate boneyard where our dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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I don't sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily, because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things. Most of all, I keep working because I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it.
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inspiration
passion
waiting-for-ideas
waiting-for-inspiration
writer-s-block
writers-block
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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99a06fb
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un cierto grado de desapego inteligente puede ser un valioso instrumento de paz en esta vida.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |