"Eat, Pray, Love" - Book Review Journal #2 and Book Club Friday!!

So today I am linking up with Heather to finish my review of "Eat, Pray, Love"(you can read the first part here). I loved all the comments I got last week and welcome my newest followers, remember, when I hit 50 followers I am going to do a giveaway (read the details about that here). So, in the final installation of my review of this book (I definitely needed two since it was over 500 pages), I chose the excerpts that spoke to me the most. The first one was:

"...I see how everyone is held so reassuringly in their positions over the years. First you are a child, then you are a teenager, then you are a young married person, then you are a parent, then you are retired, then you are a grandparent - at every stage you know who you are, you know what your duty is and you know where to sit at a reunion. You sit with the other children, or teenagers, or young parents, or retirees. Until at last you are sitting with the ninety-year-olds in the shade, watching over your progeny with satisfaction. Who are you? No problem - you're the person who created all this. The satisfaction of this knowledge is immediate, and moreover, it's universally recognized. How many people have I heard claim their children as the greatest accomplishment and comfort of their lives? It's the thing they can always lean on during a metaphysical crisis, or a moment of doubt about their relevancy - If I have done nothing else in this life, then at least I have raised my children well." - page 165

Elizabeth spends a lot of time in the book trying to define herself and become grounded, and it is quite a struggle, especially when she's used to being defined based on her relationships with other people. This is something I think we can all relate to, and I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing. Everyone struggles to be autonomous, yet at the same time be the best mom, best employee, best wife, so do all those things combined make me the best ME, or am I nothing more then the best employee, when I am an employee, and then not when I'm not in that setting? I must say I look forward to future family reunions when I can look around at my progeny and have that be part of how I define myself, and I feel it will be the strongest suit I could wear to any business meeting, because raising a family is hard work, maintaining relationships is hard work, its not always fun, but it really is an amazing accomplishment, and to be able to look back on that someday I feel as though I will beem with pride. I struggle with being able to define myself, so truthfully I don't define myself, I just live each and every day to the fullest and enjoy moments that come and go with my friends and family, and try my best to savor these relationships, because I believe they really do help keep me grounded in ways I would not even know how to do myself.

"The other problem with all this swinging through the vines of thought is that you are never where you are. You are always digging in the past, or poking at the future, but rarely do you rest in the moment. It's something like the habit of my dear friend Susan who - whenever she sees a beautiful place - exclaims in near panic, 'It's so beautiful here! I want to come back here someday!' and it takes all of my persuasive powers to try and convince her that she is already here. If you're looking for a union with the divine, this forward/backward whirling is a problem. There's a reason they call God a presense - because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time." - page 223

Ugh!! I do this all the time and I hate it, I'm in Florida on vacation and loving my vacation and already thinking about the next time I come back instead of truly being in the MOMENT. I feel the strong emotions of absolutely loving where I am, yet my mind starts wandering to the next time I can come back. Have you ever struggled with that? It's so true that living in the present is so key to finding peace within yourself, if only I could find the key for living 100% in the present...
"I have searched frantically for contentment for so many years in so many ways, and all these acquisitions and accomplishments - they run you down in the end. Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. Time - when pursued like a bandit - will behave like one: always remaining in one county or one room ahead of you, changing its name and hair color to elude you, slipping out the back door of the motel just as you're banging through the lobby with your newest search warrant, leaving only a burning cigarette in the ashtray to taunt you. At some point you have to stop because it won't. You have to admit that you won't catch it. That you're not supposed to catch it. At some point, as Richard keeps telling me, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you." page 259

I need to remind myself this excerpt over and over, I have gone back and read it soo many times. I feel like I am always chasing something, especially with a two year old, chasing the goal of potty training, when I really feel like she will get a hang of it on her terms not mine, but I feel this strong source of pressure, that I think I am imposing upon myself to have her potty trained. maybe it's induced by society, maybe it's wishful thinking, but it really does feel urgent. And then I give up, and she tells me, "mommy I poop on potty", and that sense of urgency floods right back in. No contentment, just pure frustration. Which can't be helping anyone, and certainly isn't getting her potty trained. Contentment is a lot like the previous excerpt describes, you need to learn to savor and enjoy the fact that she isn't potty trained, and that is isn't the end of the world, and admire how cute her little padded bum looks in a diaper, and how adorable she is when she exclaims "I'm soaked" even though you wanted her to go on the potty more then you had any idea.

"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be." - page 251

I like this one because I often wish my life away, only to disappoint myself. This week will be the week that I.... and then disappointment, instead of just being content or better yet making things happen for myself. I think that is the key, we all need to stop wearing our wishbones, and grow a backbone, and make things happen for ourselves, instead of wishing your life away.

Overall, this book had a lot of great analogies, but they really were well hidden in the midst of an entire chapter about an Ashram, or yoga. Not a quick read by any stretch of the imagination, and probably not something I would want to read again. I really looked forward to the movie, figuring it wold be a shorter version of the movie and the messages would come across a lot clearer, but the movie also dragged and I had to watch it in two sittings because it was quite slow moving. It would be really hard for me to recommend reading either the book or watching the movie because neither was great, but both had the potential to be amazing.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Amy