. . .You’re like a dog at the dump, baby- you’re just lickin’ at an empty tin can, trying to get more nutrition out of it. And if you’re not careful, that can’s gonna get stuck on your snout forever and make your life miserable. So drop it.
-Richard from Texas, in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love
I’ve shared a bit before about how much I loved this book when I first read it last summer. There was much about it that resonated with me, because when Gilbert had the experiences that led her to write the book, she was the same age I was, and she and I had both gone through divorces followed by lightning-quick forays into less-than-healthy post-divorce relationships. (In my case, I even got engaged to the dude….still shakin’ my head about that one, kids.)
Anyway….nearly a year after I read it the first time, I find it still resonates as strongly as ever. As I take stock of my life and its current cast of characters, as well as the hobbies, habits, obligations, routines, and other items that fill in the background of my day-to-day, I’m feeling a stronger and stronger urge building within me to make some very concrete and very significant changes. Some of them may not be easy — in fact, I’d be willing to bet that some of them will probably require a fair amount of gumption, courage, and inner strength. But I will get nowhere if I don’t fix what’s broken or excise what is unfixable. It’s so easy to become complacent, so easy to wish for circumstances to change without truly taking control of a given situation. As Richard from Texas also says, “You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughta be.”
It’s time.
I’ll close with this thought, also from Eat Pray Love:
Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be… a prudent insurance policy.
