Two years ago, I was sucked into the journey of Eat, Pray, Love, and to this day I have yet to emerge. Not only do I love its undoubtable adventure and lustrous backdrops, but I connect a lot to the spiritual journey as well. It’s a very complete story touching on happiness, peace and love. I do not know one person that cannot relate to at least one of those concepts.
“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. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”-Elizabeth Gilbert
Image Courtesy of Google Images
Whether Gilbert was in Italy eating an entire plate of pasta, or scrubbing the floors of a temple in India, she was doing it all in attempts to achieve happiness. Before her three-continent-journey, an on looker might wonder why she was so desperately seeking happiness, when everything around her seemed to be picture perfect. She was married. Also, she was an established writer, traveler and self made millionaire. What’s not to be happy about?
I learned early on in life, that happiness comes from within. To be quite frank, religion taught me this; sadly, Gilbert did not discover this until much later in life, when she went out looking for it.I too was in search of something more when this book graced my hands for the first time. My mother is Christian and my father was Jewish. Unfortunately, he died in a freak car accident when I was only five years old. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Judaism three years ago. However, after completely immersing myself into the culture and religion, not only has it given me the opportunity to travel to Israel, but it has also given me a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Like Gilbert, I am on a lifelong quest to achieve and maintain happiness, peace and love. I also had to move to get my journey started. I came to Miami from Jacksonville, Florida three years ago. I was judged harshly for leaving my small town, family and friends behind. The truth is, no one but you knows your potential. Realistically, I was never going to reach my goals or discover true happiness staying there. So like Gilbert, I did what was right for me, and I have never been happier.
Eat, Pray, Love is kind of like a mirror for me. It gives me hope knowing that there are other people out there that do believe happiness is in deed attainable. We all only get one chance in this life, and that it is. I hope everyone, at some point in their lives, experience true happiness, peace and love. Image Courtesy of Google Images
