“Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Again, the summer brought me a significant parallel. Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, “Eat, Pray, Love” and the movie “Julie & Julia” both featured the true stories of just-30 women who needed to make a change in their lives. Both women, featured in print and in film, have been widely criticized as being selfish, self-centered and whiney. I personally didn’t find either of them to be egocentric and understood their need to forge a new path. There is something that happens, I believe, when you hit your 30s. In our youth, we dream of ideal but simplified careers. “I want to be a Veterinarian” or “I want to be a Pilot” are common themes. We may dream of changing the world or of finding “the one”. These dreams are still possible in your 20s, when escape from schooling occurs and the world lies open and waiting. But, by your 30s, reality sets in. No matter what career you are in, it is usually not as glamorous as you expected, and, for many of us, not very fulfilling. The person who made the world light up for you at 22 has changed, as have you, and the idea of sticking in for the long haul looks more scary than comforting. So, what do you do? Many of us settle, giving in to the momentum of car payments, security and the expectations of society. These two women decided to try something different. For one year, Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and blogged about it. This fulfilled her need to write and challenged her to “Be Brave” as Ms. Child would often extol. Elizabeth Gilbert had a similar impulse, but different needs. A lover of yoga, a Christian and a writer, she was desperate to find inner peace, to truly commune with God. She took a year off from work and spent four months in Italy, four months in India and four months in Indonesia. The idea was to spoil herself in Italy and pursue her life dream of learning Italian. In India, she would spend six weeks in a meditative Ashram then travel the country, and in Indonesia she would commune with a Holy Man and find balance between the pleasure of Italy and the devotion of India.

In many ways, Ms. Gilbert stuck to the plan. She learned Italian, learned to relax and learned to eat with joy in Italy. Her arch sense of humor and on-point observations become instantly clear in this first journey, detailed in diary-like entries that chronicle her inner path as much as her astonishing weight gain. She “hits the wall”, so to speak, in India, where she must finally confront the insecurities and inner demons that constantly nag at her consciousness. Extending her time at the Ashram for the full four months, she repeatedly struggles against the same issues. Over time her restless fighting lands her with no other choice than to “let it go”. And she does. By the time she reaches Indonesia she is able to take many of the unexpected events in stride. Her new-found understanding of her own psyche leads to love, a “crossing over” she began in Italy.

I found the book delightful and engaging. I saw much of myself in this woman and enjoyed the grounded nature at the core of this “flight of fancy”. The spiritual exploration was particularly poignant to me and I admire Gilbert for putting the importance of this experiment ahead of the nay-sayers and those ever-present expectations of society. The more I read, the more I liked it, and I recommend it to any person who is willing to take that step into the unknown. That, as they say, is a true act of faith.