I want to start this post off with a huge THANK YOU! The comments, calls, texts, etc. I’ve received from every chapter of my life is beyond humbling. In a year when I’ve never felt so broken, I’ve also never felt so loved. Thanks for rooting me on. 🫶
So, let’s talk about Elizabeth Gilbert for a minute. She is hands-down one of my favorite authors. Liz skyrocketed to fame after her best-selling autobiography, Eat, Pray, Love, became a box office hit and quickly made every woman fantasize about peacing out of their soul-draining life, stuffing her face with pasta and wine, and searching for a bigger purpose in a magical far-off land.
Our similarities are not lost on me. The failed relationship. The longing for something to make sense when nothing at all does. The need for stability after every part of your life has left you on shaky ground. The relentless desire to wipe the slate clean and go where no one knows your name or your story. And of course, the shared joy of downing a good bottle of vino (or two).
Now I hate to break it to you, but you’re sure as hell not going to find me scrubbing the floors of an ashram in India in silence, a la Julia Roberts, any time soon. I barely clean my own floors, to be honest.
Although I’ve seen the movie a hundred times, it may surprise you that I actually have never read Eat, Pray, Love. It also may surprise you that my Portugal trip isn’t at all inspired by her claim-to-fame literary work – but rather another Liz Gilbert book, Big Magic.
Big Magic is the only book I will never loan out for fear it won’t be returned (yes, I realize I can always order another one – but don’t want to). It’s an incredibly honest advice guide for creative living beyond fear and sits on the top of my bookshelf, along with the likes of Untamed by Glennon Doyle (another amazing author on my favorites list) and To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedediah Jenkins. Big Magic is essentially one big, long permission slip (signed by Liz herself), that takes the pressure off creating, whatever it is you’re creating, perfectly and to just put your art out in the world and do the damn thing already.
Its wrinkled pages are dogeared in certain places, marking specific nuggets of Liz’s wisdom that spoke to me. One of the lines that I love the most is…
“Begin anywhere. Preferably right now.”
So, “eat, pray, love”? No thanks. I’ve had to eat more fury in the name of amicability than I care to admit. I’ve said more prayers than I can count in a single lifetime. And I’ve had to love myself more intentionally than ever before. I think I’ve got it down pat.
Instead, I’m going to just simply begin. Begin to create experiences, friendships, memories, and stories that I’ll be able to take with me for the rest of my life. Begin this new chapter in a big, beautiful way. And to begin enjoying the hell out of life again and do the damn thing already.
Amor e luz (love and light),
MW
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