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9ac2722
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Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure).
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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869906c
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Il bel far niente means 'the beauty of doing nothing'... [it] has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. You don't necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either.
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spiritual
values-in-life
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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4ea75ab
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perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat,
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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973ac29
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Both the five-year-olds looked at me with bewilderment and a bit of fearful uncertainty. I had a sudden horrifying image of the woman I might become if I'm not careful: Crazy Aunt Liz. The divorcee in the muumuu with the dyed orange hair who doesn't eat dairy but smokes menthols, who's always just coming back from her astrology cruise or breaking up with her aroma-therapist boyfriend, who reads the Tarot cards of kindergarteners and says th..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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017ea36
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To my taste, the men in Rome are ridiculously, hurtfully, stupidly beautiful. More beautiful even than Roman women, to be honest. Italian men are beautiful in the same way as French women, which is to say-- no detail spared in the quest for perfection. They're like show poodles. Sometimes they look so good I want to applaud.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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47f30ac
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Fear--who cares?
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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061aa06
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I believe that our planet is inhabited not only by animals and plants and bacteria and viruses, but also by ideas. Ideas are a disembodied, energetic life-form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us--albeit strangely. Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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219ebcf
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Addiction is the hallmark of every infatuation-based love story. It all begins when the object of your adoration bestows upon you a heady, hallucinogenic dose of something you never even dared to admit that you wanted--an emotional speedball, perhaps, of thunderous love and roiling excitement. Soon you start craving that intense attention, with the hungry obsession of any junkie. When the drug is withheld, you promptly turn sick, crazy and ..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2fbe280
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When Catherine told me about this (tragedy nearby), I could only say, shocked, "Dear God, that family needs grace." She replied firmly, "That family needs casseroles," and then proceeded to organize the entire neighborhood into bringing that family dinner, in shifts, every single night, for an entire year. I do not know if my sister fully recognizes that this _is_ grace."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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9568e05
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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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freedom
misery
obstacle
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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10050f5
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God waited me out.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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52efff7
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y`tqd lmr 'n tw'm lrwH hw lshkhS l'nsb lh , whdh myrydh ljmy` . wlkn tw'm lrwH lHqyqy lys sw~ mrah , nh lshkhS ldhy yryk kl my`yqk , lshkhS ldhy ylft ntbhk l~ nfsk lky tGyry Hytk , tw'm lrwH lHqyqy hw 'hm shkhS tltqyn bh `l~ l'rjH , lnh ymzq jdrnk wyhzk bqwh lky tstfyqy
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love
novel
self
soulmate
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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bfbcc03
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In the modern industrialized Western world, where I come from, the person whom you choose to marry is perhaps the single most vivid representation of your own personality. Your spouse becomes the most gleaming possible mirror through which your emotional individualism is reflected back to the world. There is no choice more intensely personal after all, than whom you choose to marry; that choice tells us, to a large extent, who you are.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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5abe618
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There is a Dutch word, uitwaaien, "to walk against the wind for pleasure."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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e676247
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at some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.
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recovery
self-forgiveness
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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b11bf30
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Traditionally, I have responded to the transcendent mystics of all religions. I have always responded with breathless excitement to anyone who has ever said that God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky, but instead abides very close to us indeed- much closer than we can imagine, breathing right through our own hearts.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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f688ec2
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Who loves you most? Who loves you best? Who thinks of you when others rest?
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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7844c6a
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if I am not actively creating something, then I am probably actively destroying something
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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798ae63
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living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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4e5fd28
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You can clear out whatever obstacles are preventing you from living your most creative life, with the simple understanding that whatever is bad for you is probably also bad for your work.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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f186a98
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Everyone makes their own path, and I must make mine. The Bhagavad Gita - and ancient Indian Yogic text - says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life perfectly. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly. It is mine.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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a42b37a
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What's your favorite flavor of shit sandwich?" What Manson means is that every single pursuit--no matter how wonderful and exciting and glamorous it may initially seem--comes with its own brand of shit sandwich, its own lousy side effects. As Manson writes with profound wisdom: "Everything sucks, some of the time." You just have to decide what sort of suckage you're willing to deal with. So the question is not so much "What are you passiona..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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aeaf4f8
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All I could say was, "I don't know what to do." I remember her taking me by the shoulders and looking me in the eye with a calm smile and saying simply, "Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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35eec9d
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I was doing something I'd never done before. And what will I be able to do tomorrow that I cannot yet do today?
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future
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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1af4231
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My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see her peace. She did not cop out on herself. The benefits of her choices are massive-a long, stable marriage to a man she still calls her best friend; a family that has extended now into grandchildren who adore her; a certainty in her own strength. Maybe some things were sacrificed, and my dad made his sacrifices, too-but who amongst us lives with..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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e48ae01
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In Venice in the Middle Ages there was once a profession for a man called a codega--a fellow you hired to walk in front of you at night with a lit lantern, showing you the way, scaring off thieves and demons, bringing you confidence and protection through the dark streets.
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protection
thieves
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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b14bb38
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Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don't you see what happened? This guy touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching, I mean you got zapped, kiddo. But that love you felt, that's just the beginning. You just got a taste of love. That's just limited little rinky-dink mortal love. Wait till you see how much more deeply you can love than that. Heck, Groceries--you have the capacity to someday lov..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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0b8b218
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the great lack of parity between husbands and wives has always been spawned by the disproportionate degree of self-sacrifice that women are willing to make on behalf of those they love.
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wives
women
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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254b46f
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Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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56f90c8
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creative entitlement simply means believing that you are allowed to be here, and that--merely by being here--you are allowed to have a voice and a vision of your own.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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91642e5
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Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me. The words made me laugh in delight.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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f0c86c8
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ndm ymnHk llh lHy@ , mn wjbk (wmn Hqk kky'n bshry) 'n tjd shyy'an jmylan fyh , mhm kn Dy'ylan
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god
life
novel
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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83d7268
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I wonder if I am capable of being somebody's sun, somebody's everything. Am I centered enough now to be the center of somebody else's life?
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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c261230
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Beauty is not required. Beauty is accuracy's distraction.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2984bd7
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Basically, your fear is like a mall cop who thinks he's a Navy SEAL: He hasn't slept in days, he's all hopped up on Red Bull, and he's liable to shoot at his own shadow in an absurd effort to keep everyone "safe."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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abcfdf7
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My heart skipped a beat and then flat-out tripped over itself and fell on its face. Then my heart stood up, brushed itself off, took a deep breath and announced: "I want a spiritual teacher."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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41a7671
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What time has ever been a simple time for those who are living it?
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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bb7a82f
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a woman's place is in the kitchen...sitting in a comfortable chair, with her feet up, drinking a glass of wine and watching her husband cook dinner.
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inspirational
love
relatioships
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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4b3dc71
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Moreover, I have boundary issues with men. Or maybe that's not fair to say. One must have boundaries in the first place, right? But I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog's money, my dog's time - everything. If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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b607414
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There's a part of me which has always wanted to hear a man say, "Let me take care of you forever," and I have never heard it spoken before. Over the last few years, I'd given up looking for that person, learned how to say this heartening sentence to myself, especially in times of fear. But to hear it from someone else now, from someone who is speaking sincerely..."
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romance
secure
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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8b5943f
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This is what we are like. Collectively as a species, this is our emotional landscape. I met an old lady once, almost 100 years old, and she told me, "There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge? Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief, and suffering."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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44246f8
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And love is always complicated. But still humans most try to love each other, darling. We must get out hearts broken sometimes. This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.
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heart-broken
love
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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e100fe0
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In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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43306cd
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The trick at every turn was to endure the test of living for as long as possible. The odds of survival were punishingly slim, for the world was naught by a school of calamity and an endless burning furnace of tribulation. But those who survived the world shaped it--even as the world, simultaneously, shaped them.
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inspirational-quotes
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Elizabeth Gilbert |