Eat, Love, Pray by: Elizabeth Gilbert (The book I loved)

I loved the title of that book. It talks about what I believe are three, fundamental things we all need to do to be happy: eat, pray and love. I love to eat, everybody and anybody who knows me know that. I love to love life. In fact, I think I'm in love with life and all its aspects, sunsets, sunrises, nature in general, as well as the living creatures, animals and humans included LOL. So, no mystery I felt compelled to read that book from the moment I heard its title and so I did. A dear friend gave it to me for my birthday and I enjoyed reading it very much; for that I'll always be thankful to Gigi. Well, I pretty much enjoy all books, but I enjoyed this one in particular because it took me back to Italy, where I had recently been to. It spoke to me about India, where I never thought I would like to go and Bali, Indonesia, where after reading about it I would definitely love to go one day. So, after reading Eat, pray, love I meditated for the first time in my life. When in Bali she learned a meditation that entailled sitting still and smiling. That was all, just sitting by oneself and thinking of positive things, while smiling to yourself.
I tend to write on books, that's why it is not a good idea to let me borrow one if you're a meticulous reader. I like doing what I call living the book, drawing hearts or stars next to the parts I love. These are some of those favorite parts that I marked while reading the book:
"I wanted to be all Gandhi about this. I wanted to be all Nelson Mandela about this. Not realizing at the time that both Gandhi and Mandela were lawyers" (18)
"He was playing a character I had invented, which is somewhat telling. In desperate love,it's always like this, isn't it? In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding that they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place" (18-9)
Her funny way of describing herself: "Given that I am the planet's most affectionate life-form (something like a cross beatween a golden retriever and a barnacle" (20)
"How could two people who were so in love not end up happily ever after?" (22)
"I was beginning to sense that-even though my life still looked like a multi-vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike during holiday traffic-Iwas tottering on the brink of becoming a self-governing individual" (23)
"But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God." (27)
"Parla come magni." (87)
"The Bhagavad Gita-that 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 with perfection" (95)
In regards to Venice: "Greasy streams of Adriatic backwash nudge up against the long-suffering foundations of these buildings, testing the endurance of this fourteenth-century science fair experiment-Hey, what if we built a city that sits in water all the time?" (100)
"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's 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 ver meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it." (149)
"you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you" (155)
"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?" (157)
"Eventually, everything goes away" (174)
My favorite method of meditation: "sit and smile" (231)
"The Balinese believe we are each accompanied at birth by four invisible brothers, who come into the world with us and protect us throughout our lives.. The borthers inhabit the four virtues a person needs in order to be safe and happy in life: intelligence, friendship, strength and (I love this one) poetry" (251)
About the six elements of her failProof Broken-Heart Curing Treatment: Vitamin E, get much sleep, drink much water, travel to a place far away from the person you loved, meditate and teach your heart that this is destiny" (264)
"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" (280)
"To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life" (298)
"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices" (334)