"To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."
Have any of you out there read this book? I have been aware of the Julia Roberts film since it came out in 2010, but i never took the time to check either the book or the film because i'm not a fan of Julia Roberts. There doesn't seem to be space for anyone else but Julia.
Anyway, this is not a post to criticise Julia Roberts (all my own speculation, i don't personally know her!). This is a post about me finally reading the book whilst on holiday in Bali (part of the book takes place in Ubud, which is where JB and I started our holiday) and I have to say i really enjoyed the experience.
Yes, there was definitely a part of me which acknowledged that not everyone could do what Elizabeth Gilbert did after experiencing something traumatic - that is, take 1 year off from life, and travel to 3 different destinations for different reasons. But what i did like was Liz's honesty about the journey she was on, her self-deprecating humour and her thoughts on faith. Also, i now really want to go to Italy and do some serious food tourism :)
There are many quotes which i liked, or which resonated with me. I'll just share one with you which was a personal favourite of mine:
"I keep remembering one of my guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck something that will descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.....And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it."
Choose happiness. And work at it. Because you and i are in a position to. There are others less fortunate than us.
Lou xxxx