Finding the Love of your Life
One of my favorite books is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In this semi-autobiographical tale, Liz takes her readers on a journey of self-discovery. Throughout her own account of finding happiness and love, Liz ventures to three different countries: Italy, India, and Indonesia. While in Italy, she practices the enjoyment of life’s pleasures- eating, learning, enjoying the culture, and forming deep friendships. By sharp contrast, she visits India to practice devotion. Here, she devotes her intellectual and emotional energy to the practice of meditation and of strengthening her faith. This portion of the book is the most convicting. Through the struggle, trial, and hardship of refining and growing in her practice, she pushes past emotional barriers and exposes a new layer of her understanding of the world and of the longings of her heart. After experiencing the dichotomy of these two worlds, namely enjoying the pleasures of life and finding meaning in life, she travels to Bali to grow in the balance of the two. Throughout her year of travel, Liz embarks on finding the essence of life, the meaning in the every day. More than that, on her journey of self-discovery, Liz finds the love of her life in the process of learning to love life itself. Though, this love of her life may not pertain to any man, any single event, or invigorating experience but, rather, the love of her life is the actual process of loving life. February is acclaimed as the month of love. Situated just after the beginning of a new year, February exudes the essence of love. So, while love is in the air, we should explore a love that breathes life into our every-day, we should discover the love of life. This month, we will apply Liz’s experiences in Italy, India, and Indonesia in our own personal adventure in uncovering what ignites our love of life. We will reflect on what brings us pleasure, where we find ourselves connected to our love for life, where we enjoy the company of family, friends, and loved ones, and where we feel invigorated and grateful to be alive. Then, we will explore where we find meaning in life- in what circumstances that we challenge the truth of our convictions, in what events that we hold fast to those convictions, and in which areas we may need to foster a space for our dreams to come alive. Finally, we will weigh the ways that we will be able to balance enjoying the pleasures of life and finding meaning in life. In finding a balance that is so unique to each of our individual and vastly different, but wholly beautiful, walks of life, we may find that we have come to love life. We may come to realize that life does not amount to a single event, goal accomplished, dream achieved, desire obtained, award received, recognition gained, or love found. Rather, we may come to grasp that life is comprised of every moment, good or bad, joyful or painful, encouraging or disheartening, that amounts to this unique, beautiful, and valuable life that is given to each of us. My hope for this month is for each of us to embrace the love that is so evident in our lives- the love found in the process of living, itself. I wish for us to allow ourselves to enjoy the things that bring us pleasure, while probing at ourselves to constantly unearth new meaning and define our unfaltering purpose. I desire that we will explore all the ways in which we love well, live well, and love the way that we live.