Eat Pray Love - a fine manual for life

This is the most delightful book I have read in sometime. I found myself dog-earing pages and thinking "I have to buy more copies". This is a book where I truly want to buy a box and hand them out to my dearest friends and new acquaintances. I just love Elizabeth Gilbert's style, I could feel her, I could taste the decadent Italian cuisine she described (I had to go right to the antipasto bar at Sentry Hilldale), I could empathize with her initial frustrations of meditation (just try sitting still in an icky seated position even for 5 minutes - ugh.) and then I could rejoice in her ultimate peace and joy. As silly as it may sound, I found myself feeling good emotionally as she found spiritual clarity.

One of the first quotes I marked was "Americans work harder and longer and more stresful hours than anyone in the world today...Of course, we inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating straight out of the cereal box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure)." When I read that I looked around - was Elizabeth Gilbert talking to ME? Raise your hand if she was talking to you. Life gets so busy sometimes, this book really helped me live vicariously through her spiritual adventure and slow down. I signed up for yoga again after too many weekends in a "coma", I started thinking about what she was "saying". Now can one book change your life? Maybe not - but it served as a great mirror - it asked me "look at our life, do you like what you see?" As for family and friends, I usually love what I see. But the chaos? The too much time worrying about work, being impatient with my children and burying my head from the noise - not so much. I think this is a book in which I could find a new message each time I read it - but for now - run get yourself a copy:)

On the yarn front...I have two rows of my ripple-icious done - I won't show it until at least 4:) I am afraid to jinx myself, but I am starting to get it - so I am feeling good about that. I knit 4 inches of the cuff on my second Bird of Paradise sock yesterday. And look at this...I would love to try this kimono, it seems to be knit in one piece and to possibly use the same dropped stitch technique as the imfamous Clapotis by Kate Gilbert. Another Gilbert girl!