Eat, NAY, Love

“Maybe I won’t get married. Maybe I’ll do one of those Eat, Pray, Love things… Ugh, no, I don’t wanna pray — forget it, I’ll just die alone.”

— Mindy Lahiri 

Pfft. I’m not decorating this hellhole.

I won’t paste her whole post, but it’s worth reading. It’s like Elizabeth Gilbert​ can see right into my wheelhouse. All of this, exactly, and this is why I never bothered putting a lot of furniture or decor in my Sad Singleton apartment. (By the way, I’m not an idiot —  I’m sure writing, like, a bajillion-dollar Oprah-endorsed didn’t suck as far as helping Gilbert get right with life, but I enjoy the general idea.)

 

“I almost went furniture shopping, in other words, to decorate my rut.

 

“I almost made that rut my permanent address.

 

“But some other, more stubborn, part of me, was like: ‘NO. We’re getting the hell out of here.’

 

“If you keep doing the things that take care of you, the general direction will be upward. It may be slow and twisted, but it will be mostly upward. You will rise. No matter how long it takes.

 

“In my case, the things that took care of me were: therapy, prayer, meditation, exercise, antidepressants, the solace of good friends, the comfort of reading good books, the practice of forgiveness and atonement, exposure to nature, looooooong walks, heart-opening acts of generosity, sometimes awkward attempts at self-compassion, listening to non-sad beautiful music, trying to get perspective on the human condition through philosophical study, trying to distract myself by learning Italian, getting rid of objects that held bad memories, setting boundaries with people who hurt or shamed me, moving to a new place…etc, etc.”

 

Another thoughtful day at Smug HQ. You’ve been warned.

And another good one from Liz Gilbert’s page:

Hot women-on-women crime…

Apparently it’s an Elizabeth Gilbert kind of day in my brain, but I was also thinking about this after reading Amy Poehler’s book, Yes Please, where she talks about stay-at-home moms v. working moms, breastfeeding, and that whole culture, and listening to Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler discussing infertility and the completely inappropriate and disheartening things people can say about it.
Even besides being kind to other women, just… don’t be a dick to anyone, OK? Generally. Blanket policy. I LOVE blankets. I love dick. WIN-WIN.

Unless people are dicks to you. Then by all means, you dick right back. You hear me? YOU. DICK. RIGHT. BACK.

(I may be a little winter-loopy, sorry.)

But P.S.? You look terrific!

Wisdom from Elizabeth Gilbert

I’m done with 10-page letters, but this was still nice to read. (From Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook page.)

(Sidebar: “And YOU had rambled on for 18 pages…FRONT AND BACK!”)

Some Neil Gaiman wisdom to kick off 2015…

As seen at Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook page: