Eat Pray Love or Hello, God? It's me, Barbara...

I promise to come back to "Cinco De Mayo or Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" as soon as I claw my way up and over this mental block I've put up for myself. I look at it each day, but I just can't seem to grasp that transition I've been looking for. Stay tuned on that front. In the meantime, I have to keep writing, so here's something different. 

I recently listened to Eat Pray Love as an audiobook. Rarely has a book struck a chord with me as this one has. As a writer, as a woman, as a human being. Not necessarily in that order. I am not a world traveler. I have not explored farther than the confines of The Happiest Place On Earth, A.K.A. Disneyworld. And even though this book is partly about a woman traveling to other countries and immersing herself in the cultures of these places, trust me when I say that I do not have some burning desire to pack my one good suitcase, kiss my husband and kid good-bye and hop on a plane to head to France, or Australia, or wherever. At least, not for more than a couple weeks.

No, what really rooted itself into my brain was how this woman travels into her own mind, her own psyche, flays it open and dissects it before millions of readers. And we have all gulped it down like our second helping of Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing. It sure doesn’t sound like any kind of memoir I’ve ever read before! 

Elizabeth Gilbert admits in the book that when she proposed the idea of her book, she wasn’t proposing it as a literary travel documentary. She had no plans to discuss every aspect of each of the cultures she was going to visit. Rather, she wanted to explore a different aspect of herself “set against the backdrop of each of these places.” Pleasure, spirituality, and balance. These were what she sought.

I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t read it. And really, I’m not contemplating tonight on the actual story anyways. Tonight I’m reflecting on what pleasure, spirituality, and balance mean to me. Because I came very close to moving out of this town, and out of this state in the last couple months, to go in search of a more meaningful fulfilling existence for myself and my family. And even though I have placed the idea on the back burner, the reality is I still don’t know exactly what I’m doing with this life I’ve been gifted with. 

To be continued…

Author's Note: This turned into a longer piece, so I split it in half, and will post the other half tomorrow night to give it to you in easier gulps, as I've heard from some of you that it is better to do it that way.