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Of course nobody is required to stand in the field of honor...If you find it too challenging, you may always exit, and then you can remain a child. But if you wish to be a person of character, I'm afraid this is the only way. But it may be painful.
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being-an-adult
field-of-honor
honor
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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mn wsT Hyty . tfjr ynbw` `Zym
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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I am a child of God, just like anyone else. I am a constituent of this universe. I have invisible spirit benefactors who believe in me, and who labor alongside me. The fact that I am here at all is evidence that I have the right to be here. I have a right to my own voice and a right to my own vision. I have a right to collaborate with creativity, because I myself am a product and a consequence of Creation.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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I believe that inspiration will always try its best to work with you--but if you are not ready or available, it may indeed choose to leave you and to search for a different human collaborator.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mat..
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soul-mate
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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sometimes you count the days, sometimes you weigh them.
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life
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The drums are slamming, rhythmic, exciting. As the minutes pass, it feels to me like we are collectively pulling the year 2004 toward us. Like we have roped it with our music, and now we are hauling it across the night sky like it's a massive fishing net, brimming with all our unknown destinies. And what a heavy net it is, indeed, carrying as it does all the births, deaths, tragedies, wars, love stories, inventions, transformations and cala..
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new-year
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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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 becomes mature enough for sex.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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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 compete. Rome just watches all the fussing and striving, completely unfazed, exuding an air like: 'Hey- do whatever you want, but I'm still Rome. I am inspired by the regal self-assurance of th..
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self-confidence
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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If you really want to get to know someone, you have to divorce him.
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life
love
marriage
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Naturally she knew of him. She had her own copies of these works in the White Acre library. She had read Boehme, though she never admired him. Jacob Boehme was a sixteenth-century cobbler from Germany who had mystical visions about plants. Many people considered him an early botanist. Alma's mother, on the other hand, had considered him a cesspool of residual medieval superstition. So there was considerable conflict of opinion surrounding J..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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She had dearly missed the northern world during her time in the South Seas. She had missed the change of seasons, and the hard, bright, bracing sunlight of winter. She had missed the rigors of a cold climate, and the rigors of the mind, as well. She was simply not made for the tropics--neither in complexion or disposition. There were those who loved Tahiti because it felt to them like Eden--like the beginning of history; she wished to live ..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Meanwhile, the object of your adoration has now become repulsed by you. He looks at you like you're someone he's never met before, much less someone he once loved with high passion. The irony is, you can hardly blame him. I mean, check yourself out. You're a pathetic mess, unrecognizable even to your own eyes.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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the flying fish and the diving bird had been netted.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. The
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Back off, Jack-I got four brothers protecting my ass,' and I just rode on by him
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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A few weeks ago he said to me, completely ou of nowhere, 'You good friend to me, Liss. Loyal friend.' Then he sighed, stared off into space and added mournfully, ' Not like Sharon.' Who the hell is Sharon? What did she do to him? When I tried asking him about it, he would give me no answer. Acted suddenly like he didn't know who I was even referring to. As if I were the one who'd brought up that thieving hussy Sharon in the first place.)
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Atskiriba no daudzam draudzenem es nejutu nekadas sapigas ilgas, ieraugot mazu bernu. (Tiesa, es jutu sapigas ilgas, ieraugot labu lietoto gramatu veikalu.)
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.
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pleasure
relax
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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All too often, those of us who choose to remain childless are accused of being somehow unwomanly or unnatural or selfish, but history teaches us that there have always been women who went through life without having babies.
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memoir
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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My fear wasn't some kind of rare artisanal object; it was just a mass-produced item, available on the shelves of any generic box store.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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It's the same with relationships, I think. 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 alw..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The Bat Phone to the Universe," some kind of Iva-only, open-round-the-clock special channel to the divine."
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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He had heard especially promising things about Philadelphia--the lively capital of that young nation. It was said to be a city with a good-enough shipping port, central to the eastern coast of the country, filled with pragmatic Quakers, pharmacists, and hardworking farmers. It was rumored to be a place without haughty aristocrats (unlike Boston), and without pleasure-fearing puritans (unlike Connecticut), and without troublesome self-minted..
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landscaping
philadelphia
religious-tolerance
welcome
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Beauty attracts beauty.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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It's all for the best.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Ah, lovely adolescence--when the "talented" are officially shunted off from the herd, thus putting the total burden of society's creative dreams on the thin shoulders of a few select souls, while condemning everyone else to live a more commonplace, inspiration-free existence! What a system . . . )"
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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believe that we understand very little, and what we do understand is mostly wrong. I believe that life cannot be survived--that is evident!--but if one is lucky, life can be endured for quite a long while. If one is both lucky and stubborn, life can sometimes even be enjoyed.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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It is the prerogative of all humans to make ludicrous choices, to fall in love with the most unlikely of partners, and to set themselves up for the most predictable of calamities.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Where am I getting the brain space to store these words? I'm hoping that maybe my mind has decided to clear out some old negative thoughts and sad memories and replace them with these shiny new words.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Looking for Truth is not some kind of spazzy free-for-all, not even during this, the great age of the spazzy free-for-all.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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As a creator, you can design any sort of jewelry that you like for the inside of other people's minds (or simply for the inside of your own mind). You can make work that's provocative, aggressive, sacred, edgy, traditional, earnest, devastating, entertaining, brutal, fanciful . . . but when all is said and done, it's still just intracranial jewelry-making. It's still just decoration. And that's glorious.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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She did a little soul-searching, the way one does on the big birthdays. She asked herself when was the last time she'd felt truly light, joyous, and--yes--creative in her own skin. To her shock, she realized that it had been decades since she'd felt that way.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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What all couples have ever wanted, a little bit of privacy in which to practice all manners of love.
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marriage
marriage-equality
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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What I said to God through my gasping sobs was something like this: 'Hello, God. How are you? I'm Liz. It's nice to meet you.' That's right- I was speaking tot he creator of the universe as though we'd just been introduced at a cocktail party. But we work with what we know in this life, and these are the words I always use at the beginning of a relationship. In fact, it was all I could do to stop myself from saying, "I've always been a big ..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The world was his divan. There was such a freedom in it.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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So when modern-day religious conservatives wax nostalgic about how marriage is a sacred tradition that reaches back into history for thousands of uninterrupted years, they are absolutely correct, but in only one respect--only if they happen to be talking about Judaism.
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marriage
religion
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The search for God is a reversal of the normal, mundane worldly order. In the search for God, you revert from what attracts you and swim toward that which is difficult. You are abandoning your comforting and familiar habits with the hope (the mere hope!) that something greater will be offered you in return for what you have given up.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The poet Jack Gilbert (no relation, sadly for me) wrote that marriage is what happens "between the memorable." He said that we often look back on our marriages years later, perhaps after one spouse has died, and all we can recall are "the vacations, and emergencies"--the high points and low points. The rest of it blends into a blurry sort of daily sameness. But it is that very blurred sameness, the poet argues, that comprises marriage. Marr..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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The classical Indian sages wrote that there are three factors which indicate whether a soul has been blessed with the highest and most auspicious luck in the universe: 1. To have been born a human being, capable of concious inquiry. 2. To have been born - or to have developed - a yearning to understand the nature of the universe. 3. To have found a living spiritual master.
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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Wasn't I proud of all we accomplished-the prestigious home in the Hudson Valley, the apartment in Manhattan, the eight phone lines, the friends and the picnics and the parties, the weekends spent roaming the aisles of some box-shaped superstore of our choice, buying ever more appliances on credit? I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life-so why did I feel like none of it resembled me? Why did I feel so overwh..
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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We were so committed to solving this thing. Because how could two people so in love NOT end up happily ever after? It HAD to work. Didn't it?
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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British physicist Sir Arthur Eddington's memorable explanation of how the universe works: "Something unknown is doing we don't know what." --
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Elizabeth Gilbert |
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For better or for worse, my dad taught me that the best place to pitch a tent will always be the spot marked NO CAMPING.)
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Elizabeth Gilbert |