From Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
"Letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe that the wold revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well - that would be the end of the universe. But try dropping it. This is the message I'm getting.
Sit quietly for now and cease your relentless participation. Watch what happens. The birds do not crash dead out of the sky in mid-flight, after all. The trees do not wither and die, the rivers do not run red with blood.
Life continues to go on. Why are you so sure that your micromanagement of every moment in this whole world is so essential? Why don't you let it be?"
I originally picked up this book when it first came out. When it was first chosen as an Oprah Pick. If I remember right, I took it on vacation with us and only got through the first couple of pages. I tried to read it again a couple of months later, and had the same response. A sort of boredom with the book and no real interest.
Recently though, when searching for books on all things India, this book came up in my search results.
Glaring at me on the library computer screen, I originally dismissed the title and went on to the next choice.
After wandering through the rows and rows of books and not finding anything that really struck my fancy, I went back to that computer screen and pulled up the dewey decimal code for the book.
I read it almost straight through. Once from start to finish ... and once to simply re-read the portion where Liz visits India.
Her journey is an amazing one, but her wisdom and experiences she shared from her time in India really hit home for me.
Let it be. There are things in this life you can control, and things you cannot. For me - as I embark on this new adventure for the family ... I hope to engrain that upon my every thought.
There are things in this journey that I cannot control, and things that I will not be able to alter.
Let it be.
