It took me a long time to finish reading this one. Not because it was boring or anything like that. Just the opposite actually, it was wonderful and I took my time digesting every little bit of it.
It’s a book loaded with life lessons but done so in a light hearted relatable way.
I would say I recommend this book to everyone but having talked to others who have already read it I have come to understand that not everyone would really “get it.” People who are young and inexperienced or are just content with their lives and not looking to better themselves may not really understand or appreciate how Elisabeth picks things apart and can create a better world for herself by doing so.
I now have this strong desire to go to Italy, India and Indonesia for some reason. Elizabeth describes these places so well you feel like you are there with her.
There were a few times I appreciated her ideas but didn’t agree with them. As she progressed on her spiritual journey she would come around and alter or change her understanding which would line up more with how I feel. The book really was like a daily devotion to me. I enjoyed every bit of it.
While reading Eat Pray Love I felt so much like Elizabeth knew my heart, like she was a long lost twin sister. It was so easy and delightful to go on her written journey with her when we seem to see through the same eyes.
Pic of Elizabeth I found on google.
I haven’t yet seen the movie. I plan to one day soon. I also plan to be forgiving of it because I’m sure there was tons left out and changed. It’s the way movies are now days. When I do see it I’ll be sure to write a review and include the link to it on here.
I marked my book up. I underlined things and made page notes at the back so I could come back and use quotes. I am writing my favorite quotes from the book on here. They will be in the pictures. At the end of the quotes area there is some pages I didn’t quote because they were to long so I included my thoughts on what is written instead.
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Quotes from Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Pic I took of a peacock in Hawaii.
Pic I took at Waikiki Aquarium.
Pic I took.
Pic from google search of Augusteum.
Pic from google.
Pic by me.
Pic found on google.
Pic found on google of Elizabeth Gilbert.
Pic found on google.
Pic drawn by my daughter Kara.
Pic I took.
Pic I took of Halona Blowhole in Hawaii.
Pic found on google.
Pic i drew.
Pic from google. It was a nun that told her that.
Pic I took of my daughter Kara.
Pic I took.
Pic of me in Hawaii.
Pic i found of google.
Pic I found on google.
Pic I took of myself.
Pic I took in Hawaii.
Fun pic I took of my oldest three and me.
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I have to temper myself because I enjoyed and got something out of the whole book. There were a few areas that were too long for a quote but I related to it so I just put the page number down. I’ll tell you why they meant something special to me.
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Page 203/204
ANTEVASIN
This part has helped me find some patience for people who can look at a tray of facts and still refuse to eat anything from it. They are satisfied with where they are and have no desire or intent to change not matter how pretty you paint the picture. In the past I got so aggravated with people like that. I couldn’t understand their way of thinking. I still have my moments but for the most part I realize now I am the one who is actually different. It’s isn’t all that normal to be a truth seeker, to be an investigator, an explorer, to what to know what, when, why and so on and be ok and happy being this way.
Elizabeth uses the word slippery. One of the traits I have avoided admitting I have in some witchy descriptions of people types is slippery, slimy, and mucus. It sounds so unreliable and it sounds yucky. But, everything has its purpose and that purpose can be positive or negative, it all depends on how you use it. I like being able to slip from one understanding to a better one. I like the flexibility and, you gotta admit, mucus is quite flexible.
Just as I have been intolerant of people who seem close minded, I can see how they could easily be the same toward me. It’s about how you look at it and it’s about what you do with it. We all have our purpose, we can all benefit this life, and we could do it so much better if we understood that it is ok for people to be different than us and even better yet if we accept each other the way we are and work together.
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Page 293
This area was just fun because I had recently seen an interview with Lady Gaga. In the interview she explains how a lot of her songs that are about romance and religion are actually about how she feels about her home, New York. Here in this area of the book that Elizabeth and a friend are reminiscing about New York and I felt the feeling they expressed went along well with what I heard Lady Gaga say.
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Page 263
I got a good laugh at this part. It’s about a lady telling Liz what to do so she can have beautiful hair like her. Nothing deep really, just funny.
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Page 232
Juice from saffron and sandlewood for burns. Has anyone used this and how did it work out for you?
Page 327
This part is near the end of her book. She is accepting her pain and hurt and such and dealing with it in a manner I had been told all my life was wrong and bad and harmful and pretty much would turn into sin at some point. She is bringing the seemingly negative feelings into herself and accepting them.
Before reading this book about two years ago I started doing something very similar. Before, I had believed things like anger, hate, jealousy, bitterness and so on were sins and so I wouldn’t accept them. When I felt the urge to feel those emotions I would scold myself and quote scriptures in my head or even find them and read them to help me quickly overcome the feelings and I’d repent. I did this for a few reasons. One, I wanted to please the Lord Jesus Christ and it was from the scriptures that I was taught so well that those emotions were harmful and sinful. I also just didn’t want to feel them either.
What I didn’t realize was that by denying those natural emotions I was not actually blocking them or getting rid of them, I was burying them deep inside me. Instead of blowing up like a bomb, I would have a random crying fit from time to time which I absolutely hated because I didn’t like to cry. I had some ignored health issues that I can now see were likely related but it wasn’t till I was 19 that I got terribly sick and it became evident that all those things I thought I got rid of were in me and destroying my body physically.
One of the sisters in the church taught me to admit I had a negative feeling, call it by name, ask the Lord for forgiveness and then imagine it in a box that I offer up to him, thus ridding me of the negative emotion. It helped for a while.
However, emotions are not sins. They are naturally a part of us and by denying and riding ourselves of them we are denying who we really are.
About three years ago when I woke up to the fact that I had been in a Christian cult for twenty years and at the same time my marriage was on the rocks I got to experience what it feels like to live in the void. I wasn’t about to take on anything just to get out of it. I had to know the truth even if it meant that I would never leave the middle of nowhere. As it turned out I didn’t have to make permanent residency there after all.
Since my idea and definition of sin was challenged and I was learning about morals, ethics, negative, positive and such from something other than the Bible and those who use it I was no longer afraid to do some experimenting. I decided to see what it felt like and what would happen if I just embraced the feelings that came to me. So, when something made me angry, I decided that angry was what I was gonna feel and I wasn’t gonna try to stop and I was gonna express myself about it and I was just gonna accept it and then I just wasn’t really actually all that angry anymore and then I was surprised to find I was fine and rather happy. The same with jealousy. I felt funny admitting I wanted what someone else had but I did it anyway. Not always where they could hear me but so I could at least hear myself very clearly. And then it would just fade away and I’d find myself happy for them and fine with who and where I was.
I understand now that I wasn’t bringing anything foreign into myself. I was just accepting me.
I drew this pic of some of my elements and signs and an important reminder to go along with it!
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You can find Elizabeth Gilberts web-site at http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/bio.htm#.
Greatly written, greatly done pictures, loved it, Lori. I would hope one day you get to see this movie because I’m so sure you will fall in love with it. Thanks a lot for sharing with us!!! :)))
Thank you Vinod! I’m sure I will soon and I’ll let you know.
Sept. 27, 2011 on FaceBook –
Zakiyyah Akh
Your review of “Eat, Pray, Love” is the best review I’ve ever read! Simply amazing! The pictures, the quotes, the summary! I’m looking forward to reading it myself now. Thank you for sharing this with us.
More from FaceBook –
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Zakiyyah Akh –
Great review! Great pictures! Loving Kara’s artwork! Wonderful quotes! Guess what I’m doing? Yep! Downloading the book to my iPad 🙂 Thank you.
September 27
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Lorese Longdumbassmiddlename Howery –
I just glanced over your review, but I did read some of the quotes that are REALLY good. I own the book and never got passed the part when she ate through Italy. I head lots of truthfully, white women, RAVE at how good the book was. Maybe I couldn’t relate to it because I know her life could never BE or have never been my life.
Growing up a poor African American kid, oldest of 13, having my first kid at 15…The things she spoke of an experienced did not resignate with me. It took me forever to read it. It was boring. Her humor wasn’t necessarily humourous….
However, from reading your quotes separating the stories as to how she came to these points are pretty enlightening. When you add the story line, she just seemed like a privileged white woman with an opportunity to seek things that others could never DREAM of…
September 27
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Lori K. Hobbs –
I know what you mean. I was poor and am still fighting the system. I can’t really do anything with four kids. Even the freekin YMCA and B&G club is too expensive cause I have to times everything times four. But the things Elizabeth discovered about herself and about life meant a lot to me. I guess I relate because of my own extreme emotional and spiritual journey. Like her I had to take the bull by the horns and find my own feet and create my own life late in life. When I started reading the book I did have some twangs of jealousy at her being able to travel like that because that is what i want to do so bad. I mean gee, not only is she rich, she is unattached, no kids. lol But I ended up just enjoying and learning from the life mental lessons which were many. If I don’t end up miraculously rich one day (hey, it could happen) then when the kids are older I plan to get jobs that help me travel like on a cruse line or something. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
September 27
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Lori K. Hobbs –
Thank you both for checking my review out and commenting!
September 27
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Lorese Longdumbassmiddlename Howery –
*smiling hard* what u described above was probably my reason for not finishing the book…jealousy! The thought of her experience seems to far from possible in my world…not getting rich but going on a journey…I can barely get away for a week! I wouldn’t even consider a spiritual journey that requires me to use my passport! Lol
September 27