Eat Pray Love

Have I mentioned that I hate pumping? It's completely bovine and a little humiliating. It also leaves you very vulnerable. I had a friend that I looked forward to visiting while I pumped and it made everything seem not so bad afterall. Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat Pray Love reads like a classic novel and a note passed by a high school friend all at the same time. She is able to write beautiful prose in one paragraph and follow it up with the most up-to-date and perfectly fitted slang.

I bought this book a week before I had Evelynn. I couldn't afford it but grabbed it anyway at Target and convinced myself that $11 spent on myself wasn't completely selfish. I went home and poured myself into the book and was sad when I had to tear myself away to go to sleep. I didn't get back to it for some time. My first day in the hospital I wrote down things that I wanted Brian to bring from home for me. Pillow, new book on nightstand, toothbrush, etc. He forgot the pillow, but I was so thankful that he brought the book. I had trouble reading it while on my left side for so long. I tried to read it while on the morphine drip but realized that I was saying words but nothing had actually sunk in. I was so sad that I couldn't get back into the world that was this book. I knew that it held far-off destinations for me, far away from the hospital that I was so lonely in.

When I got home from the hospital I was a wreck. I was so weepy and scared and could barely walk. This book was my companion to many scary trips to the bathroom to have post c-section bowel movements. It got me through as I clutched the book and the bathroom counter at the same time... praying that the dulcolax would please, please do its job.

When I left it at work once I returned 5 weeks later (yes - it took me over 6 weeks to read a book!) and I remember sitting on the couch that night reminiscing about my old friend. Feeling a little sad.

I think that if I were to meet Ms. Gilbert in real life I would feel so intimidated by her. She is a big city woman with an education and street smarts. After reading this book I'm reminded that we are all human. Even the most intimidating or enviable (is that a word?) characters have had moments where they were weeping on their bathroom floors.

I'm reminded of all of the ways that we can "feed" our souls. Food, prayer, love, friendship, charity, conversation, journaling, sex, travel, nature... just to name a few. How quickly we lose sight of these small servings of soul-nourishment. It seems that we are so quick to claim that we are just plain unhappy in life when really it's because we're standing in a river and dying of thirst. I recommend that you read this book... and drink up!