Sizzle Says

” . . .You’re like a dog at the dump, baby- you’re just lickin’ at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you’re not careful, that can’s gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.”

“But I love him.”

“So love him.”

“But I miss him.”

“So miss him. Send him some love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it. You’re just afraid to let go of the last bits of David because then you’ll really be alone, and Liz Gilbert is scared to death of what will happen if she’s really alone. But here’s what you gotta understand, Groceries. If you clear out all that space in your mind that you’re using right now to obsess about this guy, you’ll have a vacuum there, an open spot- a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with that doorway? It will rush in- God will rush in- and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go.”

“But I wish me and David could-”

He cuts me off. “See, now that’s your problem. You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughta be.”

This line gives me the first laugh of the day.

Then I ask Richard, “So how long will it be before all this grieving passes?”

“You want an exact date?”

“Yes.”

“Somethin’ you can circle on your calendar?”

“Yes.”

“Lemme tell you something, Groceries- you got some serious control issues.”

-Taken from Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

For the record (Kevin, listen to this), I finished this book WAY ahead of schedule for Book Club. I even marked a bunch of pages because SO much of it was resonating with me. It’s a good read for those of you interested in a story of a woman who travels through three countries for a year after a very painful divorce. Through her travels she finds self-acceptance and learns to love her true self that was hidden in an unhealthy and unfulfilling relationship. The Italy section made me want to eat bowls of pasta and get drunk on wine and the flirty looks from hot Italian men in a piazza. (Not so different than most days, I know.) The Indonesia section (the final part) focuses on her finding love, unexpectedly, after her long journey inward. I was particularly taken with the middle section when she is in India because her spiritual journey made me think of my own struggles with finding peace with my faith and with myself. It gave me hope.

And hope is something I need in big doses lately.

“It’s okay in the day/I’m staying busy/Tied up in love so I don’t have to wonder where is he/Got so sick of crying/So just lately/When I catch myself I do a 180/I stay up clean the house/at least I’m not drinking/ Run around just so I don’t have to think about thinking/That silent sense of content/That everyone gets/Just disappears soon as the sun sets. . .” -Wake Up Alone, Amy Winehouse