EAT PRAY LOVE
Elizabeth Gilbert
Have you ever thought of leaving all the work behind and escaping
from a noisy city alone just to find a balance in your life? Well, the author,
Elizabeth Gilbert has. Despite possessing a successful career as a writer and
owning a wonderful husband, she was not happy and satisfied. Lack of private
space to ponder, she felt confused, helpless and couldn’t figure out what she
really wanted. Making up her mind to end her marriage and take a journey to
Italy, India, and Indonesia for the sake of purifying spirits, she
found out where she belonged to in the long run.
Travel alone is a way to pursue pleasure. Without familiars, you face a
whole new environment and all you can do is feel free to the strange city and
embrace it. Enjoying delicacies, beautiful scenery, and new friends in Italy, Elizabeth realized that romantic love was not the only choice to
fill her empty mind. Besides, she seemed to be able to smile to herself. This
was the first change as well as a good start for her. “Smile with face, smile with mind, even
smile in liver.” this is quite interesting and important for people
in modern society. Most people are too busy chasing for fame and wealth to
smile. In fact, we are kind of similar to Elizabeth. The way we keep following
might not be what we really want, leading to complaint about working tiredness
and dissatisfaction. Maybe we can learn from Elizabeth, just go
and search
for
our own word.
Travel alone is a way to confront self. Listen
to the dreaded voice in your deep heart instead of fleeing from it, and you can
control and change it. Leaving from Italy as a heaven, Elizabeth headed for a
substance-deficient country, India, in order to see the real ego clearly. In
the beginning, she slept over for the religious
practice and dozed off during meditation. Day by day,
she gradually stayed on track and straightened out the messy thoughts, knowing
that the only way to conquer it was open her mind and face it at ease.
Something impresses me is that Elizabeth made a great influence on a seventeen-year-old Indian girl,
Tulsi. At first, Tulsi was reluctant to get marry by the custom. Through Elizabeth’s
support and dedication of Guru Gita to her, she finally felt released and believed to be happy in her marriage.
Not only did Elizabeth find the peace in her spirit, but also inspired
people around her. I think this change of Elizabeth is worthy of respect. From
this part of story, I discover that being alone is more challenging than it
looks. Maybe the reason is that most people don’t really know their mind
completely and can’t find the sense of belonging. This is why sometimes being accompanied is lonelier than being alone.
And the sentence, “No looking at world through your head, look through your
heart instead.” will always keep in my mind.
Travel alone is a way to find a balance. People run after balance, but
what is the definition of balance? Elizabeth’s final destination was
Bali, Indonesia, for the purpose of meeting a medicine man, Ketut
Liyer. In the day time, she kept daily routine, religious practice. At night,
she had fun in the party to enjoy her life. Here, she remained a balance
between body and mind. Until she met a Mr. Right, Felipe, she was plunged into
confusion again. Afraid of breaking her balance and being hurt, she refused
Felipe flatly. At that time, Ketut
told her “Sometimes to lose balance for love is part of living balanced life.”
Realizing the meaning of “one body
two sides”, she decided on her word: “Let’s cross over.” I’m so delight to see the happy ending that the
author eventually got over her deficiency and gained bliss. In addition to her
love story, I pay attention to good deeds made by Elizabeth. She donated to help a healer named Wayan
Nuriasih who was a single mother with bad living condition. It reminds me of
what teacher ever said: volunteering is a way of life. If you already reach
your balance, please help those who are in need to make them balanced.
Divorce was a turning point for Elizabeth.
Even though it destroyed the original life in marriage, it ended up bringing
her the real bliss. After reading this book, I make self-examination. “You
have to learn to select your thoughts the way you select your clothes every
day.” I can’t agree with it any more. By learning from Elizabeth, I will spare
time for self thinking in order to ensure the right direction I’m going
forward. As for traveling alone, it is a process to understand self condition.
Courageous enough to depart from original life, you can see the broadened road
waiting for you. Changing the aspect you treat yourself, you can truly face the
problem. And when you are no longer scared of losing balance, probably you have
achieved the genuine balance. Due to advantages of traveling alone, I would
like to map out a journey on my own, hoping to search out my exclusive word and
be a better guy.
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