Travelling to "I" countries to Eat, Pray, and Love

Hi ladies,
I am catching up on the review for June 19th, 2008. We held this evening’s discussion at Grandma Margetts’ house, and enjoyed a potluck dinner out on her covered patio. We read Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. This was an interesting lively read. It is a book about Elizabeth’s own experiences. She describes it as “One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia”. She spends a year traveling and living in these three places. In each country she focuses on a specific area of her life. In Italy, she focuses on pleasure…the pleasure of her environment and the pleasure of eating fabulous food. Of course she gains quite a bit of weight as she eats her way through the Italian cuisine. She has just divorced her husband and Italy was a good starting place to find herself, even if she was a bit self-absorbed. She next goes to live in India in an Ashram to study Yoga under a Guru. Her focus now turns to devotion. A tremendous amount of self control had to be learned as she learned to control her mind and became at peace living in very austere conditions. Several in the discussion found this section slow to read. I thought the process of controlling ones thoughts and overcoming weaknesses was very interesting. Her final destination was Indonesia. She met and interacted with a number of people who influenced her, including a man with whom she eventually falls in love. The focus in Indonesia was on balance…an interesting topic that we each address regularly. The book was well-liked. It was noted that it would be great to have an entire year to “find yourself”, especially after a difficult time in your life. Most of us do not have that luxury. I did love Gilbert’s use of metaphor, and her style of writing was very engaging. Many of Gilbert’s insights resonated with our group, and she was able to make us feel as she felt as she embarked on this year of self discovery. In the process, we could question our own thoughts and values and learn more about ourselves in return.
Marylynne Buford