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07b82a3
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As far as we know, we are the only species on the planet who have been given the gift-or curse, perhaps-of awareness about our own mortality. Everything here eventually dies; we're just the lucky ones who get to think about this fact every day.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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acd100b
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But I was always coming here. I though 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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fate
religion
god
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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ab9cc05
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Most of humanity, he said, have eyes that are so caked shut with the dust of deception they will never see the truth, no matter who tries to help them.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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6322f61
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But gay marriage is coming to America first and foremost because marriage here is a secular concern, not a religious one. The objection to gay marriage is almost invariably biblical, but nobody's legal vows in this country are defined by interpretation of biblical verse - or at least, not since the Supreme Court stood up for Richard and Mildred Loving. A church wedding ceremony is a nice thing, but it is neither required for legal marriage ..
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marriage
gay-rights
same-sex-marriage
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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4088567
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The world ain't straight. You grow up thinking things are a certain way. You think there are rules. You think there's a way that things have to be. You try to live straight. But the world doesn't care about your rules, or what you believe. The world ain't straight, Vivian. Never will be. Our rules, they don't mean a thing. The world just happens to you sometimes, is what I think. And people just gotta keep moving through it, best they can.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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05376b7
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What kind of dog is that?" I would always give the same answer: "She's a brown dog." Similarly, when the question is raised, "What kind of God do you believe in?" my answer is easy: "I believe in a magnificent God."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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dd17114
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the only thing you need to
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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7e6b675
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There's a power struggle going on across Europe these days. A few cities are competing against each other to see who shall emerge as the great 21st century European metropolis. Will it be London? Paris? Berlin? Zurich? Maybe Brussels, center of the young union? They all strive to outdo one another culturally, architecturally, politically, fiscally. But Rome, it should be said, has not bothered to join the race for status. Rome doesn't compe..
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life
old
rome
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2b25351
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Possessing a creative mind, after all, is something like having a border collie for a pet: It needs to work, or else it will cause you an outrageous amount of trouble. Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents (eating the couch, digging a hole through the living room floor, biting the mailman, etc.). It has taken me years to learn this, but it does seem to be the case that if I a..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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735dea3
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We are all just beginners here, and we shall all die beginners.
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inspirational
creativity
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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e003276
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What Richard is talking about is instead admitting to the existence of negative thoughts, understanding where they came from and why they arrived, and then - with great forgiveness and fortitude - dismissing them.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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c7e0ac2
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There's a wonderful old Italian joke about a poor man who goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint,'Dear saint-please, please, please...give me the grace to win the lottery.' This lament goes on for months. Finally the exasperated statue come to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust,'My son-please, please, please...buy a ticket.
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inspirational
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2d3fdf5
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To be prosperous and happy in life, Henry, it is simple. Pick one woman, pick it well, and surrender.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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7c6856b
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A lovely evening of new idioms and fresh mozzarella.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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767e750
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A family in my sister's neighborhood was recently stricken with a double tragedy, when both the young mother and her three-year-old son were diagnosed with cancer. When Catherine told me about this, I could only say, shocked, "Dear God, that family needs grace." She replied firmly, "That family needs casseroles," and proceeded to organize the entire neighborhood into bringing that family dinner, in shifts, every single night, for an entire ..
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love
grace
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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820bdeb
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A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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5885755
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You can resist the seductions of grandiosity, blame, and shame. You can support other people in their creative efforts, acknowledging the truth that there's plenty of room for everyone. You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures. You can battle your demons (through therapy, recovery, prayer, or humility) instead of battling your gifts--in part by realizing that your demons were never the on..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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cad817c
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Never has it felt more important for me to tell stories of joy and abandon, passion and recklessness. Life is short and difficult, people. We must take our pleasures where we can find them. Let us not become so cautious that we forget to live.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2e90242
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I had always been taught that the pursuit of happiness was my natural (even national) birthright. It is the emotional trademark of my culture to seek happiness. Not just any kind of happiness, either, but profound happiness, even soaring happiness. And what could possibly bring a person more soaring happiness than romantic love.
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love
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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3b2b3a4
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Equally disquieting are the times when we do make a choice, only to later feel as though we have murdered some other aspect of our being by settling on one single concrete decision.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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ac4f5b5
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Venice is beautiful, but like a Bergman movie is beautiful; you can admire it, but you don't really want to live in it.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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be8a673
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Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: 'You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.
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wretch
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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f1519e8
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I still can't say whether I ever want children....I can only say how I feel now--grateful to be on my own. I also know that I won't go forth and have children just in case I might regret missing it later in life; I don't think this is a strong enough motivation to bring more babies onto the earth.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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545a021
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But I love him." "So love him." "But I miss him." "So miss him. Send him love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it."
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love
unrequited-love
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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e491c1c
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A parent is inexcusable who does not personally teach her child to think.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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41aab90
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The best we can do then, in response to our incomprehensible and dangerous world, is to practice holding equilibrium internally - no matter what insanity is transpiring out there.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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174155b
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Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying "Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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631da2f
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To show a longing for anything that one cannot have, for instance, is not a clever position.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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82ea9da
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I became a student of my own depressed experience, trying to unthread its causes. What was the root of all this despair? Was it psychological? (Was it Mom and Dad's fault?( Was it just temporal, a 'bad time' in my life? (When the divorce ends will the depression end with it?) Was it genetic? (Melancholy, called by many names, has run through my family for generations, along with its sad bride, Alcoholism.) Was it cultural? (Is this just the..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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5ef79ff
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But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else's blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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959bf0c
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Even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there's no reason to add to everyone's misery by looking miserable yourself.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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b7753b2
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A friend took me to the most amazing place the other day. It's called the Augusteum. Octavian Augustus built it to house his remains. When the barbarians came they trashed it a long with everything else. The great Augustus, Rome's first true great emperor. How could he have imagined that Rome, the whole world as far as he was concerned, would be in ruins. It's one of the quietest, loneliest places in Rome. The city has grown up around it ov..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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10b2f29
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The culture of Rome just doesn't match the culture of Yoga, not as far as I can see. In fact, I've decided that Rome and Yoga don't have anything in common at all. Except for the way they both kind of remind you of the word toga.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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700131b
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Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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fd9707d
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I have no nostalgia for the patriarchy, please believe me. But what I have come to realize is that, when that patriarchic system was (rightfully) dismantled, it was not necessarily replaced by another form of protection. What I mean is--I never thought to ask a suitor the same challenging questions my father might have asked him, in a different age.
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travel
self-esteem
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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346766d
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A Sanskrit word appeared in the paragraph: ANTEVASIN. It means, 'one who lives at the border.' In ancient times, this was a literal description. It indicated a person who had left the bustling center of worldly life to go live at the edge of the forest where the spiritual masters dwelled. The antevasin was not of the villager's anymore-not a householder with a conventional life. But neither was he yet a transcendent-not one of those sages w..
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border
scholar
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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e745189
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I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it's just terrified. Because underneath that shiny veneer, perfectionism is nothing more that a deep existential angst the says, again and again, 'I am not good enough and I will never be good enough.
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perfectionism
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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858ee4f
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Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying, 'Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I am voicing in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.' There is a reason that we refer to leaps-of-faith, because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down wit..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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8d92778
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But the very fact that this world is so challenging is exactly why you sometimes must reach out of its jurisdiction for help, appealing to a higher authority in order to find your comfort.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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9df2ee7
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In my experience, this is the hardest lesson of them all. After a certain age, we are all walking around this world in bodies made of secrets and shame and sorrow and old, unhealed injuries. Our hearts grow sore and misshapen around all this pain - yet somehow, still, we carry on.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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2498ce6
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That's just your ego, trying to make sure it stays in charge. This is what ego does. It keeps you feeling separate, keeps you with a sense of duality, tries to convince you that you're flawed and broken and alone instead of whole.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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bd61090
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We invented marriage. Couples invented marriage. We also invented divorce,mind you. And we invented infidelity,too, as well as romantic misery. In fact we invented the whole sloppy mess of love and intimacy and aversion and euphoria and failure. But most importantly of all, most subversively of all, most stubbornly of all, we invented privacy.
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marriage
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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6326e6d
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Then my mother shocked me. She said, " All those things that you want from your relationship, Liz? I have always wanted those things too." [She] showed me the handful of bullets she'd had to bite over the decades in order to stay happily married (and she was happily married...) to my father. "You have to understand how little I was raised to expect that I desired in life, honey. Remember- I come from a different time and place... and you ha..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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b22d15d
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My face is a transparent transmitter of my every thought.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |