Wow, what a great book. I finished Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I know this book will be one of my multiples. I wanted to hurry up and finish it so I could read it again. It’s not often I read a book that makes me stop and take notes in the middle of a chapter, unless it’s a software manual or class assignment.
This book has three sections and each one focuses on a separate life area. The first section is Eat. She’s just coming out of a bad divorce and runs away to Italy to heal. Healing takes many forms but for the first part of her story, it means food. Pasta, seafood, everything you can imagine in a wonderful tour of Italy.
The second portion of her journey is spiritual. Elizabeth goes to an Ashram in India to study meditation. I’ve really considered meditation as a real spiritual exercise. My first impression was of cartoon swami’s chanting phrases, in serious need of consonants and clothes.
The author presents meditation as the second part of communicating with God. Prayer is talking to God and I’m pretty good at this part. Meditation is listening to God and I could use some serious work here. That’s one of the times I stopped to take notes and I was kind of embarrassed that I was learning elements of prayer from a humorous travel narrative. No matter, learning takes place in many places and at any time, so pajama time in my favorite chair works as well as class or church.
The final part of the story is about love. She travels to Bali to find balance and also finds love. This was a very sweet story but not as interesting to me as the first two sections. In fact, the best part of the story took place in Rome during a café conversation. One of the residents tells her that to really know yourself; you need to know your word.
This idea is that everyone and every place as a single word that describes them. Not a phrase, not a mission statement or marketing jingle, but a single word that sums up your primary nature. The local said that Rome’s word is ‘sex’ and another city, (I think it was Sicily), is ‘fight’. I’m not familiar with Rome but I’ve watched a lot of old movies with Italian men in scandalous shorts and busty women in draped fabric that hide a world of lusciousness, and/or architecture. I’m thinking of all the gladiator movies of the 1950’s and anything with Jane Mansfield or Gina Lollabrigida.
This got me thinking about what my word would be. It’s tougher than it sounds to identify a single word that captures the truest essence of who you are. Thinking of the word for my friends or family was easier. My daughter’s word is ‘bold’; my husband’s is ‘big’ or maybe ‘loyal’. I’m still thinking about that one.
My big challenge was figuring out what my own word would be. I ran through several options but ‘fabulous’ just seemed too generic and ‘superstar’ was maybe just a smidge too much. There were some more restrained candidates; I thought of ‘curious’ because I’m always wanting to find out about things, but then I thought that instead of being a verb, it could be interpreted as ‘hmmm, isn’t she, you know, curious’?
Like, you know, odd.
I sure wouldn’t want to give anyone ideas with a word like that so I won’t use it. There were others;
- Spiritual (nope, too crystals and chakra cleansing sounding for me)
- Feminine (have you seen my shoulders? The NFL is flir-texting me)
- Computer Goddess or Chihuahua Queen (both disqualified for being two words)
My final candidate is ‘creative’. It’s simple but I think it sums up a lot of my personality. Creative can include my, (love affair is too strong a description but career with benefits might fit), with computers. It can also include my writing, my wardrobe, my crafts and my approach to cooking. Yes, cooking; figuring out how to turn burned toast into croutons or OMG-that’s-strong coffee leftovers into a fertilizer for hydrangeas takes some creativity.
Until I decide otherwise, my word is ‘creative’. I’m open to other suggestions so you’re free to send in your candidates. More importantly, I’m giving you an assignment. I want you to think about your word. What is it? What single word sums up you? Are you smart, brave, or shy? How about strong, or edgy, or serene? I would really like to know.
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