Do you know anyone who has read Eat, Pray, Love and not liked it? I know I wasn’t the only one who treated it like a sacred text in my last twenties and early 30s. These days Elizabeth Gilbert is an icon at this point, but back then she was just getting started.
For context, At 30 I sold everything and left Toronto to embark on my own “Eat, Pray, Love” journey of sorts and now at 44 I’m still on my first stop where I fell in love with one of my English students. We have two beautiful boys and three adorable dogs and love to travel and explore the lesser known beaches of Mexico.
Recently I got to meet her!! Full Circle moment that is for sure!
I didn’t get to cozy up to her, hang out, absorb her wisdom and energy for seven days in a row like I did with Julie + Rich in Tuscany, but I did sneak a handwritten thank you card, hand-painted mandala by Carito and Frida Khalo bracelet by Sosa Cáustica into her hands!
I did get to soak up her wisdom, humor and raw experiences for about an hour. I did get to take the day to myself and really sit in all the gratitude I have for her, for Eat, Pray, Love and for Big Magic and all the ways she has taught me to tap into my intuition, my curiosity and my magic. I dish all about it on the podcast this month, published Tuesday Nov 14th here.
Her talk, if it had a title, could have been: ‘A Curiosity Driven Life’.
The crux of the golden nugget was: choose the path of curiosity over the path of fear on the micro and the macro decisions in your life.
Why?
Well because it is more fun! More authentic! More you! It is teaching you to tap into your intuition, deepest desires, inner child, inner joy, your playfulness and your innate zest for life!
Also, as she would say, ‘because you are the art project.’
It’s not about what you are ‘producing’ – you are the production.
Living your life by following your curiosity feeds your creativity and allows you to live creatively – following your own unique and aligned path – true to you, not the status quo.
This is what she sparked in me with Eat, Pray, Love and then more thoroughly and recently when I finally read Big Magic.
So just in case she didn’t open my thank you card, and just in case she might be reading this:
Thank you Liz. Thank you for planting so many seeds that changed my life. My gratitude for you is overflowing from my heart. When I start to think of all the incredible things and journeys I may have missed out on if I had settled for a status quo life I tear up.
Not quite meeting you didn’t disappoint. Our interaction, ever so brief, was a delight. It seemed so silly to blow you a kiss, but also so natural. Hopefully you received it. I know I received every word of your talk that Wednesday October 25th in the Blackberry Auditorium in Mexico City like my soul depended on it. It was just the boost to my soul that I needed.
I carried around this quote in my journals for years:
“In the end, I’ve come to believe in something I call the ‘physics of the quest’, a force in nature governed by the laws of gravity. The rules of quest physics goes something like this: If you’re brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting and set out on a truth seeking journey either internally or externally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared most of all to face and forgive some of the most difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you.”
~ Elizabeth Gilbert
My 24hrs in Mexico City was so enjoyable I wanted to recommend everywhere I went:
I wrote my thank you card and in my journal at Madre Cafe
I had breakfast twice at Eno Cafe
I got my haircut at Room 98 Salon
I had the best ceviche of my life and an incredible selection of AF spirits at Koshō Asian Bistro
I tried a new app called Sonder to find a cool place to stay.
These were all very close to the event in the neighborhood called Roma. If you ever want advice on where to go and stay in Mexico City, I’m your lady.
EAT PRAY LOVE TRAILER
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