Elizabeth Gilbert, the wonderful author of that inspiring book, says this:
EASE
We are the strivingest people who have everlived. We are ambitious, time-starved, competitive, distracted. We move at full velocity, yet constantly fear we are not doing enough. Though we live longer than any humans before us, our lives feel shorter, restless, breathless...
Dear ones, EASE UP. Pump the brakes. Take a step back. Seriously. Take two steps back. Turn off all your electronics and surrender over all your aspirations and do absolutely nothing for a spell. I know, I know – we all need to save the world. But trust me: The world will still need saving tomorrow. In the meantime, you’re going to have a stroke soon (or cause a stroke in somebody else) if you don’t calm the hell down.
So go take a walk. Or don’t. Consider actually exhaling. Find a body of water and float. Hit a tennis ball against a wall. Tell your colleagues that you’re off meditating (people take meditation seriously, so you’ll be absolved from guilt) and then actually, secretly, nap. My radical suggestion? Cease participation, if only for one day this year – if only to make sure that we don’t lose forever the rare and vanishing human talent of appreciating ease.
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love. Her new book
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage will be
published in January, 2010.
I am copying that Elizabeth Gilbert passage and hanging it up in my room. So, so timely...I can't say how much. Sometimes is just seems like every new responsibility or accomplishment or goal I manage to work into the routine of my life just isn't enough, like I'm somehow meant to do MORE or BETTER. I haven't yet thought I was having a stroke, but mini panic attacks can make a girl think she's heading toward Heart Attack City. Not everything has to be a challenge, or a life-altering event, or a sign from the universe. Maybe someday I'll convince myself of that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting my letter :)
I know just what you mean, Aly! Someone sent it to me and I printed it and hung it up for myself. So many friends who saw it commented on it that I decided to post it here. It really seemed to strike a chord with lots of people. So why is it so hard to put into practice??? Ah, well, I'm working on it...
ReplyDeleteI read that book for a book club I had formed! It was actually the first book we chose to read. It was very.... wow. It made me think of how fast-paced this world really is... and how I do need to just relax.
ReplyDelete