eat pray love

If you haven't read the book, "Eat Pray Love" is the true story of a woman (Elizabeth Gilbert) who spends four months each in Italy, India and Indonesia after a divorce and another relationship left her broken and unsure of herself.

I'm a different movie watcher than most people...or at least, many of the people I know. I get fully absorbed by the beauty of the actors, the costumes, the music, the scenery, everything. Here's a good example: I like the movie "Marie Antoinette." I think it's sad, funny, absolutely gorgeous and ironically, watching it feels like eating cake. I don't know many people who like the movie "Marie Antoinette."

That being said, "Eat Pray Love" was also sad, funny and gorgeous, though instead of making me feel like I was eating gelato and pizza and pasta, it just made me want to be eating them!  

Julia Roberts was beautiful, James Franco, Billy Crudup and Richard Jenkins were surprisingly tender and Javier Bardem was simply delicious. Every character was astounding. The soundtrack was glorious-- take note of the song that plays when Elizabeth (Julia R) is eating a plate of spaghetti. Genius. 

I think many women will be able to relate to the desire to know, to discover one's self. I think it's important to know who you are and to like that person. I think it's important to surround ourselves with people who enjoy who we are and who bring us up instead of down. I think it's important to not get caught up in the travel aspect of "Eat Pray Love." When I saw the movie "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" I ached for Greece. I thought that if I could only get away, then I would be able to discover myself. Granted, I did end up going away to Ireland for six weeks and I did end up discovering a lot about myself there. But the thing is, I'm still discovering myself. Most of my discovering has happened right here in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I'm thankful that I have moments to myself where I can just be me and just do "me" things and find comfort and beauty and pleasure in being in my skin. I like my thoughts, I like how I can make myself laugh, I like the way I eat cheesecake veeery slowly because I fork tiny slivers into my mouth and hold each bite on my tongue. I like that I like the movie Marie Antoinette, gosh darn it! 

Now, was it as good as the book? I wish I could remember the book better. In my opinion, if you read the book first, it's almost always better then the movie. If you see the movie first, though, it can be hard to pay attention to the book. So read it, watch it, whatever- I think you'll enjoy it either way.