The other day somebody asked me a question about Autumn--I can't remember what. It all runs together these days...I'm pretty sure September is designed specifically to make me go nuts--and I said, "Well, of course. I'm a witch, after all."
Um.
What?
Then a few days later, Mrs. B linked to a story about a man in Canada being arrested for witchcraft and I got all huffy in the comments and said, "As a witch..."
Hunh?
Then that mess with the O'Donnell woman and her bloody altar picnic (bleagh) came up and I was just flabbergasted and peeved at the joke that witchcraft was to a lot of folks. It made me personally angry.
But the corker was Sunday night when we rented Double, Double, Toil and Trouble with the Olsen twins before they started wearing red lipstick and forgetting how to smile. Y'all. That movie was awful. Aw. Ful. Aw to the ful. Awful, Awful, Bleagh and Awful. Not even Will from Will and Grace could save it. Not even Cloris Leachman. Not even ANTHONY from DESIGNING WOMEN could save it.
Not only was the acting sub-par (sorry Mary Kate and Ashley), but the story was just dumb. And it offended the poo out of me. Every five minutes, I wound up saying, "Are you kidding me?" or "That is soooo wrong." or "Who came up with this mess?"
First was a character talking about a "gathering" that had gone on since the "time of the Druids and Pagans" for witches. (Vague much?) Apparently, this was only for the bad witches, though. Like Cloris Leachman, who you knew was bad because she wore a lot of black and lace and had long, grey hair that she wore in a braid. (Frankly, whichever Olsen twin wears those long dresses and clunky shoes and ratty shawls might actually have gotten her fashion inspiration here. Just saying...)
A lot of dumb stuff happened and then we were at the gathering, where...I don't even know where to start. There was moaning and chanting and waving one's hands in the air like one just didn't care. It was ridiculous and annoying and at some point in time, I said, "My witchy stomach cannot take this." Seriously. I don't know y'all and you might very well rat your hair and smear on black eyeliner and dress in a black lace skirt under a barbershop quartet jacket so you can wail something discordantly, and Mother love you for it. But I'm sorry, if I saw you doing that, I have to say that I would laugh hysterically at you while pointing you out to all of my friends because you were acting the fool. It's true. Sue me for being narrow-minded.
Anyway, what all this boils down to is that somehow over the course of a few weeks, I've started thinking of myself as a witch. I mean, I'm a pagan, because I'm not a Christian. But the thing is, that's so vague and it doesn't really pinpoint how I work, what I do, or my specific world view.
Will I tell anybody outside of this blog? Erm. I don't know. "Pagan" is so much...easier for people to take, you know what I mean? It's so much more accessible. It conjures up images so much less...Cloris Leachman-y in Awful, Awful, Bleagh and Awful.
I don't know if this is a step forward or back or in another direction or what. For now, I'm just going to let the label lie quietly over me to see if it fits. We'll see...
I wanted to remind you that NaBloWriMo starts on Friday. I was hoping to get more Paganesque people involved, because it's a great way to get into the habit of writing frequently AND meet interesting people. We've got a pretty big list so far, but we are woefully short on my Pagan Peeps. So I invite you to head on over to the website and check it out. If you're interested, shoot me an email at nothannah @ comsouth dot net and we'll get you on the list.
Later, taters. Hope all is well with you and yours!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
We Have a New Winner!
Congratulations, Celia! You were lucky number 19, which means that I need you to email me your address ASAP so I can get the Mabon book out to you. Yay!
Meg, I'm so sorry you missed out on the book...that just stinks. Shoot me an email and I'll let you know what I'm thinking about as a consolation prize.
I STILL mean to have a new post up sometime today. Really. Promise.
Meg, I'm so sorry you missed out on the book...that just stinks. Shoot me an email and I'll let you know what I'm thinking about as a consolation prize.
I STILL mean to have a new post up sometime today. Really. Promise.
CALLING ALL MEGS!!
Hey, guys! I'll have a new post up today, but I wanted to give a shout out to Meg, because I haven't heard from her yet. Meg, please send me your info, because if I haven't heard from you by noon today, I'm going to have to draw again so I can make sure the Mabon book gets to the winner by...um...Mabon. :)
Have great mornings!
Have great mornings!
Monday, September 13, 2010
A Smorgasbord of a Monday
Good morning, lovies! Whew...this weekend pretty much hit me right in the face...family business that called me back to my hometown. I was able to spend some great time with loved ones, though, and to visit with our family land, which is pretty much my spiritual center. I just breathe easier there, ya know?
BUT--I was so busy being busy and visiting and centering and breathing that I forgot to pick a winner for the Ellen Dugan book. Doh! So a few minutes ago, I used the Truly Random Number Generator and it came up with Meg--comment number one. Yay, Meg! Hit me up with your addy and info so I can send the book out in time for Mabon. Thank you to everybody who commented--your words made me want to snuggle up under a blanket outside with some warm spiced beverage and maybe a scone. :)
Thank you, also, for your kind words about the New Moon. The aforementioned family business was just one thing weighing me down, and I believe that it was RIGHT for me to not have a ritual. I'm glad that those of you who did Meet at the Water still fill the pull and I want you to know that your kinship makes me happy. Oh, and Moon Daughter, don't you DARE feel bad for one tiny minute. I loved your post and ritual and am so glad did it!
Busy, busy day today--cleaning, crafting, scrying, biking, whew... Love and light to you all!
BUT--I was so busy being busy and visiting and centering and breathing that I forgot to pick a winner for the Ellen Dugan book. Doh! So a few minutes ago, I used the Truly Random Number Generator and it came up with Meg--comment number one. Yay, Meg! Hit me up with your addy and info so I can send the book out in time for Mabon. Thank you to everybody who commented--your words made me want to snuggle up under a blanket outside with some warm spiced beverage and maybe a scone. :)
Thank you, also, for your kind words about the New Moon. The aforementioned family business was just one thing weighing me down, and I believe that it was RIGHT for me to not have a ritual. I'm glad that those of you who did Meet at the Water still fill the pull and I want you to know that your kinship makes me happy. Oh, and Moon Daughter, don't you DARE feel bad for one tiny minute. I loved your post and ritual and am so glad did it!
Busy, busy day today--cleaning, crafting, scrying, biking, whew... Love and light to you all!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Silent On the New Moon
I just got finished reading Moon Daughter's GORGEOUS description of her New Moon ritual, and I have to say it left me feeling both inspired and deflated. Inspired because it was such a personal, thoughtful process for her and deflated because I didn't have an experience like that.
This New Moon left me feeling...silent. Brooding. Worried. I'm not sure the cause of it; I'm still trying to puzzle it out.
Part of it, I think, is because it's brown widow season here and I've been finding a lot around: in my compost heap and at the homes of two of my Meals On Wheels clients. I am used to finding them this time of year and I shouldn't be as freaked out as I am by now, but this year, they felt like a portent--a warning to be careful and watchful and wait. I feel a strong sense of the need to harvest and plan for the future, but not in a refreshing kind of Autumn, New Moon way.
This is tied, I'm pretty sure, to the growing dismay I have over the behavior of some of my fellow Americans. The rage that many people feel toward Muslims of all type feels dangerous to me, like a fever that might kill you if you aren't careful. I can't help but feel, as the wheel turns toward the time of year that is most sacred to me, a sense of danger from those people. I wrote about it on I'm Not Hannah, from a primarily political perspective, but I'm wondering if any of YOU have those same feelings.
Another part of it is that I'm starting to think about creating and selling charms and charm-related items. This feels great to me on one hand and kind of weird on the other. I love to share my charms with people, but I am anxious about selling them. Perhaps I should do a Tarot reading to sort of figure it out?
Add to it the sort of nerve-wracking work I'm trying to do for the new Divining Women site and there's a whole lot of creative snarlings-up in my brain.
Anyway, all of this together meant that on the New Moon, I felt so spiritually overloaded that I just couldn't come to the Water. I'm not sure that I would have been able to release anything good and I don't want to ask for anything, as I'm asking already for clarity.
So I was silent. I didn't recharge my travel charm, I didn't get naked in the backyard, I didn't even take a ritual shower. I was mindful all day of the New Moon, feeling it heavy inside me, where I usually feel a sense of purpose and beginnings.
I'm not sure how to take this. I don't feel guilty about not participating, but I do feel sad about missing out on companionship, and I hate the idea of the movement languishing away. I think I'll work some sort of building ritual or make a charm as the Moon waxes to try to focus more on my goals and then work with a divination practice on the Full Moon?
Did you celebrate the New Moon? Did you Meet at the Water? I'd love to hear about it...
OH! I almost forgot! Today is the last day to comment and enter the drawing for the Ellen Dugan Mabon book. Go here to enter if you haven't already.
Also, I'm heading up NaBloWriMo this year. Basically, it's a challenge for the month of October to blog every day for the month. As of yet, there aren't any prizes going on (I might offer a blog makeover for the fun of it), but the challenge itself is a prize. I've met sooo many wonderful people through NaBloWriMo, people who I consider my friends. If you'd like to join us, you can visit the NaBloWriMo site here.
Have lovely days, my friends...
This New Moon left me feeling...silent. Brooding. Worried. I'm not sure the cause of it; I'm still trying to puzzle it out.
Part of it, I think, is because it's brown widow season here and I've been finding a lot around: in my compost heap and at the homes of two of my Meals On Wheels clients. I am used to finding them this time of year and I shouldn't be as freaked out as I am by now, but this year, they felt like a portent--a warning to be careful and watchful and wait. I feel a strong sense of the need to harvest and plan for the future, but not in a refreshing kind of Autumn, New Moon way.
This is tied, I'm pretty sure, to the growing dismay I have over the behavior of some of my fellow Americans. The rage that many people feel toward Muslims of all type feels dangerous to me, like a fever that might kill you if you aren't careful. I can't help but feel, as the wheel turns toward the time of year that is most sacred to me, a sense of danger from those people. I wrote about it on I'm Not Hannah, from a primarily political perspective, but I'm wondering if any of YOU have those same feelings.
Another part of it is that I'm starting to think about creating and selling charms and charm-related items. This feels great to me on one hand and kind of weird on the other. I love to share my charms with people, but I am anxious about selling them. Perhaps I should do a Tarot reading to sort of figure it out?
Add to it the sort of nerve-wracking work I'm trying to do for the new Divining Women site and there's a whole lot of creative snarlings-up in my brain.
Anyway, all of this together meant that on the New Moon, I felt so spiritually overloaded that I just couldn't come to the Water. I'm not sure that I would have been able to release anything good and I don't want to ask for anything, as I'm asking already for clarity.
So I was silent. I didn't recharge my travel charm, I didn't get naked in the backyard, I didn't even take a ritual shower. I was mindful all day of the New Moon, feeling it heavy inside me, where I usually feel a sense of purpose and beginnings.
I'm not sure how to take this. I don't feel guilty about not participating, but I do feel sad about missing out on companionship, and I hate the idea of the movement languishing away. I think I'll work some sort of building ritual or make a charm as the Moon waxes to try to focus more on my goals and then work with a divination practice on the Full Moon?
Did you celebrate the New Moon? Did you Meet at the Water? I'd love to hear about it...
OH! I almost forgot! Today is the last day to comment and enter the drawing for the Ellen Dugan Mabon book. Go here to enter if you haven't already.
Also, I'm heading up NaBloWriMo this year. Basically, it's a challenge for the month of October to blog every day for the month. As of yet, there aren't any prizes going on (I might offer a blog makeover for the fun of it), but the challenge itself is a prize. I've met sooo many wonderful people through NaBloWriMo, people who I consider my friends. If you'd like to join us, you can visit the NaBloWriMo site here.
Have lovely days, my friends...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
A New Riff on the Autumn Equinox
Oh, these cooler mornings. (Anything cooler than eighty degrees around here is a step in the right direction.) Autumn is right around the corner--even if, technically, it's still hot as blue blazes in Dingleberry until, say, Halloween. This year, I'm determined to make something of the Equinox. I mean, a full moon AND the Equinox? Come ON. I'm going to talk to Will about it. He's been very open to discussing my ideas in the past and even has joined me at some bonfires that have ceremonial purpose for me, so I think that the time is ripe to let him know that I'm stepping it up a bit in terms of my spiritual practice and our family. And I've been reading Ellen Dugan's book (pssst...have you entered to win it?), gathering up some ideas.
The only thing is...we don't have much of a harvest this year. My tomato and peppers were decimated by a virus, my cucumbers got wilt, my pumpkins had a squash borer, my beans never produced, AND I got one of these beauties in there:
Arrrrghhhh.
What?
Sorry. My garden, she was not feeling it this year. I got lots of herbs out of it (and will continue to do so...I'm harvesting tarragon, stevia, and oregano today, with lavender, chocolate mint, and basil tomorrow), but the veggies were a bust. I'm planning to do some lettuces and spinach, some carrots (which have to go in TODAY) and other fall/winter veggies, but as far as putting stuff up, not so much.
My point is that there isn't really a harvest in our home to be celebrated. At least, not one from our garden. However, yesterday, I had a little bit of inspiration that might have pointed me in the right direction.
When I was a child and, in fact, up until I was in college, my parents' home was heated by a woodstove. Every late summer/early fall, my father would round us up and we would go into the woods by our home and cut felled or dead trees into firewood. I loved those times: the smell of the fallen leaves, the crisp air, the blue of the sky. And I loved the gathering aspect of it. OH and I looooved stacking the wood when we got home, getting each log to snug perfectly against its neighbor.
Will and I have central air and heat. There is really no need for the fireplace we have in our library. However, we keep it clean and working, because unlike a lot of fireplaces, it works very efficiently. I love a fire on a winter night, just for aesthetics' sake, but it really does keep the library and part of the kitchen warm, even TOO warm when the fire's been going long enough. Every year, we buy a stack of firewood and burn a few fires. But a lot of our wood goes to the fire pit, and we always run out before winter's or just get lazy and stop burning fires inside.
Last year, our electric bills in January, February, and March were horrific. (Kind of like my electric bill last month...jeesh at this extreme weather.) I determined last month to rely more on fans in the hot months, so it made sense to think about relying more on the fireplace during the cold months. But I didn't want to spend a lot of money feeding the fire pit. (Wood around here runs seventy bucks a truckload.)
Lately, I've been noticing a lot of timber by the side of the road. There was a new school built, folks are trimming up their yards, etc. It occurred to me that this was free firewood and Will and I have been keeping an eye out, grabbing branches here and there as we have time and room. This weekend, Coach told us about a side road near the new school with some cut trees, so we checked it out. JACKPOT: four trees, pecan and oak, were in the process of being cut down and their limbs were stacked up on the side of the road. We made two trips and got this big pile:
Will sawed it up into logs and I stacked it and in the end, we have a much bigger supply of firewood than we ever have had--with another month left for gathering. (You want to leave some time for the wood to dry out so it'll burn well.)
For me, the firewood hauling yesterday was sooo much more than just gathering wood. It was a chance for our family to work together, a chance to be outside (even though it was hot). It was gathering up Mother Nature's gifts so that they wouldn't be wasted. It was preparing for the cold to come. It was, at the end of it all, laying in the harvest.
It made me think of the way that I'd like to celebrate the Equinox this year. I think I'd like to make a meal of local foods and share it with my family. I'd also like to discuss with the kidlets and Will the things we have harvested this year as a family: what we've learned, what we've enjoyed, what we've overcome. I think I'll make a scrapbook or photo album of the year past and we can label it after dinner. We'll have a bonfire, of course. I'll probably try to do some more, but I really want to keep it simple.
Have you got your plans for the Equinox settled yet? I'd love to hear them.
The only thing is...we don't have much of a harvest this year. My tomato and peppers were decimated by a virus, my cucumbers got wilt, my pumpkins had a squash borer, my beans never produced, AND I got one of these beauties in there:
What?
Sorry. My garden, she was not feeling it this year. I got lots of herbs out of it (and will continue to do so...I'm harvesting tarragon, stevia, and oregano today, with lavender, chocolate mint, and basil tomorrow), but the veggies were a bust. I'm planning to do some lettuces and spinach, some carrots (which have to go in TODAY) and other fall/winter veggies, but as far as putting stuff up, not so much.
My point is that there isn't really a harvest in our home to be celebrated. At least, not one from our garden. However, yesterday, I had a little bit of inspiration that might have pointed me in the right direction.
When I was a child and, in fact, up until I was in college, my parents' home was heated by a woodstove. Every late summer/early fall, my father would round us up and we would go into the woods by our home and cut felled or dead trees into firewood. I loved those times: the smell of the fallen leaves, the crisp air, the blue of the sky. And I loved the gathering aspect of it. OH and I looooved stacking the wood when we got home, getting each log to snug perfectly against its neighbor.
Will and I have central air and heat. There is really no need for the fireplace we have in our library. However, we keep it clean and working, because unlike a lot of fireplaces, it works very efficiently. I love a fire on a winter night, just for aesthetics' sake, but it really does keep the library and part of the kitchen warm, even TOO warm when the fire's been going long enough. Every year, we buy a stack of firewood and burn a few fires. But a lot of our wood goes to the fire pit, and we always run out before winter's or just get lazy and stop burning fires inside.
Last year, our electric bills in January, February, and March were horrific. (Kind of like my electric bill last month...jeesh at this extreme weather.) I determined last month to rely more on fans in the hot months, so it made sense to think about relying more on the fireplace during the cold months. But I didn't want to spend a lot of money feeding the fire pit. (Wood around here runs seventy bucks a truckload.)
Lately, I've been noticing a lot of timber by the side of the road. There was a new school built, folks are trimming up their yards, etc. It occurred to me that this was free firewood and Will and I have been keeping an eye out, grabbing branches here and there as we have time and room. This weekend, Coach told us about a side road near the new school with some cut trees, so we checked it out. JACKPOT: four trees, pecan and oak, were in the process of being cut down and their limbs were stacked up on the side of the road. We made two trips and got this big pile:
Will sawed it up into logs and I stacked it and in the end, we have a much bigger supply of firewood than we ever have had--with another month left for gathering. (You want to leave some time for the wood to dry out so it'll burn well.)
For me, the firewood hauling yesterday was sooo much more than just gathering wood. It was a chance for our family to work together, a chance to be outside (even though it was hot). It was gathering up Mother Nature's gifts so that they wouldn't be wasted. It was preparing for the cold to come. It was, at the end of it all, laying in the harvest.
It made me think of the way that I'd like to celebrate the Equinox this year. I think I'd like to make a meal of local foods and share it with my family. I'd also like to discuss with the kidlets and Will the things we have harvested this year as a family: what we've learned, what we've enjoyed, what we've overcome. I think I'll make a scrapbook or photo album of the year past and we can label it after dinner. We'll have a bonfire, of course. I'll probably try to do some more, but I really want to keep it simple.
Have you got your plans for the Equinox settled yet? I'd love to hear them.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Autumn Equinox Book Giveaway! Woohoo!
Oh, my goodness, y'all...today is a PET day! (Any of you who read Anne of Green Gables knows what I'm talking today. Even though it's very warm (low 90s), there is a delicious little breeze and the light has the slant that means that Autumn is drawing near. In fact, it is only EIGHTEEN days away.
Autumn is my favorite time of year and I pine for it at the end of Summer. So when I saw how this weekend was shaping up (lows in the lower 50s at night--can anybody say "bonfire?"), I was just elated. And then I remembered the most excellent book I got a couple of years ago: and got even more elated. Giddy? Maybe.
AND THEN--I remembered that when I got the book, I accidentally ordered an extra copy of it. I was supposed to give it to a friend, but I just forgot it and it sat in my witchy cupboard for...um...months. Unremembered, still tucked in its cardboard sleeve, full of goodness and spicy yumminess and YAY! FALLNESS!!!
Ahem.
Want it? You really do. It's chock full of European harvest myths and legends, Autumnal horoscope info, moon and goddess and god magic, garden stuff, a whole frickin' Mabon (Harvest Apple Upside Down Cakeareyoukiddingme??) menu and more--and it's all told in the simple, practical, often funny voice that Ellen Dugan is famous for. Even though I'm rocking the Elemental Paganicity right now, I STILL love to read this book, and will definitely be incorporating some of Dugan's stuff in the Equinoctial Celebration (err...still working on the name...) I'm planning. So.
Here's the deal: just leave a comment here, telling us what your favorite thing about the Autumn is. For me, it's the smell of spices and dried leaves, the enchanting shift in the light, the bonfires, the cooking and visiting to be done, football games, the fair...heh. That's more than one thing, hunh? Oh, well...I'm easy like Sunday morning around here. Anyway, leave your comment, and I'll randomly draw a name next Saturday and in a few days...YAY! Mabon woohoonesss!
I regret that I can only ship to the US and Canada, although if you are living over the pond and want to enter the drawing, we might be able to work out a shipping arrangement.
Disclaimer: Please note that if you click the link above and wind up buying the book, I (NotHannah) will receive an advertising fee. Clicking on the link is NOT necessary to enter the drawing for the book.
Autumn is my favorite time of year and I pine for it at the end of Summer. So when I saw how this weekend was shaping up (lows in the lower 50s at night--can anybody say "bonfire?"), I was just elated. And then I remembered the most excellent book I got a couple of years ago: and got even more elated. Giddy? Maybe.
AND THEN--I remembered that when I got the book, I accidentally ordered an extra copy of it. I was supposed to give it to a friend, but I just forgot it and it sat in my witchy cupboard for...um...months. Unremembered, still tucked in its cardboard sleeve, full of goodness and spicy yumminess and YAY! FALLNESS!!!
Ahem.
Want it? You really do. It's chock full of European harvest myths and legends, Autumnal horoscope info, moon and goddess and god magic, garden stuff, a whole frickin' Mabon (Harvest Apple Upside Down Cakeareyoukiddingme??) menu and more--and it's all told in the simple, practical, often funny voice that Ellen Dugan is famous for. Even though I'm rocking the Elemental Paganicity right now, I STILL love to read this book, and will definitely be incorporating some of Dugan's stuff in the Equinoctial Celebration (err...still working on the name...) I'm planning. So.
Here's the deal: just leave a comment here, telling us what your favorite thing about the Autumn is. For me, it's the smell of spices and dried leaves, the enchanting shift in the light, the bonfires, the cooking and visiting to be done, football games, the fair...heh. That's more than one thing, hunh? Oh, well...I'm easy like Sunday morning around here. Anyway, leave your comment, and I'll randomly draw a name next Saturday and in a few days...YAY! Mabon woohoonesss!
I regret that I can only ship to the US and Canada, although if you are living over the pond and want to enter the drawing, we might be able to work out a shipping arrangement.
Disclaimer: Please note that if you click the link above and wind up buying the book, I (NotHannah) will receive an advertising fee. Clicking on the link is NOT necessary to enter the drawing for the book.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Book Review: EAT, PRAY, LOVE
*Note to our sweet readers: I never do this, but I'm actually copying the review I did on I'm Not Hannah here today. This book is having a profound imprint on me right now, from the way I listen to Mother to the way I talk to her, and I think that it is an important book for women to read. Forgive me if you've already read it at the other blog. Hope you all are doing well...)
I have this weird book snobbery. If ever the entire universe (or an entire segment of the population) loves a book, I steer clear of it. Conversely, if everybody loathes it, I race to read it like it's sure to be a Book Friend and earn a permanent place on my shelf. This is different from my husband's book snobbery, which runs to the "if it isn't a classic or obscure (read: hard to wade through) literary fiction, I won't read it" kind. Like, the dude fought his way through Anna Karenina because he was supposed to do so. I don't think he so much enjoyed it as felt like he had slayed a large, shivering, particularly miserable dragon when he was finished with it.
Not me. It took me a year or so to finally pick up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was in paperback and on sale and I reluctantly bought it to kill time between classes. I missed my next class because I was so busy reading the book and then became one of those obsessed Harry Potter people. I love Harry. Love him.
And I hated Scarlett. Well, no. I didn't HATE Scarlett, but when I finished the long, rambling, bodice-ripping, freaky Irish witchy thing that Scarlett was, I totally understood why people wanted to cauterize the parts of their brain that had ever journeyed with Ms. O'Hara to the land of vividly colored petticoats and stockings. (Trust me. It was...bizarre.)
So when everybody lost their minds over Eat, Pray, Love, I said, "Right. On the 'Do Not Read' list it goes." Because I'm a book snob.
Then two things happened. First, I read an article about it in Bitch magazine about the book. The article was scathing, to say the least: a sweeping condemnation on the industry that seems to insist that women must spend a lot of money to find enlightenment. Some parts of the article were spot on (the juxtaposition of Oprah's magazine talking about finding simple pleasures and then peddling 200 dollar shoes sets my teeth on edge), but the bits about Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, were particularly ugly. The biggest problem seemed to be that Elizabeth Gilbert had been paid to go find her enlightenment and, thus, it wasn't genuine.
This lead me to some research on Ms. Gilbert. I had a vague idea who she was: a sort of man's writer, right? Didn't she do something related to Coyote Ugly? What I found was that she had credentials to back up the advance her publisher gave her to travel. This woman was a serious magazine writer, with a fascinating background and some fascinating subjects. Plus, she has this to say about writing and the creative life:
I know. I love this.
When I spotted Eat, Pray, Love at Heath and Kelly's house, I immediately started reading it. I had meant to read it, but funds are still low and I had Mockingjay to read, so I had put it off. (Yes, yes, I know there's always the library. Let's talk, sometime, about the enormous fine at the library that I'm paying off due to a teething puppy and a forgetful kid. It's a great story.)
Y'all. I couldn't put this book down. I honestly believe that every woman should read it.
Yes. I said "woman." Dudes who read me, you might like the book, and by all means, follow your bliss, but this book is, to me, an inherently female book.
Note I didn't say "feminine." There is nothing girly or giggly or "let's gab over chai and muffins" about this book. (Not, my beloved MK, that there is anything wrong with muffins. We WILL have our muffins some day.) But the opening segments are filled with some of the most powerful and real descriptions of female grief and confusion that I have ever read. I've written about bathroom moments before, and Ms. Gilbert does a bang-up job of taking us to her bathroom moment in such a way that we feel the cool tiles on our hot, tear-stained cheeks. And the moment when she hears God? Wow.
Yeah, I know. But I'm a woman in search of Spirit, y'all, no matter how Oprah-y that sounds and the fact that this woman is, too, and is willing to embrace spirituality as it comes to her and then search out more of it makes reading about her journey a pleasure. The food and meditating and relationships she finds along the way are really NOT the emphasis of this novel. The finding of God and of herself (and the understanding that it's all the same thing, anyway) is central to the work and, honestly, so affirming to read about.
Our society is, unfortunately, one that wields spirituality like a sword--sometimes literally. I watch and read the news about mosques and protests and restoring Honor to America with prayer and I just cringe away from it all. This book served as a reminder to me that faith could be an experience of joy and magic and transcendence.
Now, the writing is good. It's a pleasure to read. The descriptions of food and place and experience were so finely crafted that I could taste and smell and feel them all. (The part where she ran around in an Indian night and made out with trees? Priceless.) There is humor and sorrow and worry, too--the emotions are also finely drawn, allowing a reader to experience them with the writer, which is a gift in and of itself.
I know some of you may have been putting off reading this book because of the perceived cheese factor. (Hi. That would be me.) Or because MUHGAWD, they made a movie with Julia Roberts in it. Or because EVERYBODY is reading it, including your mother-in-law, and that can't be good, can it?
It can, my friends. Read this book.
I have this weird book snobbery. If ever the entire universe (or an entire segment of the population) loves a book, I steer clear of it. Conversely, if everybody loathes it, I race to read it like it's sure to be a Book Friend and earn a permanent place on my shelf. This is different from my husband's book snobbery, which runs to the "if it isn't a classic or obscure (read: hard to wade through) literary fiction, I won't read it" kind. Like, the dude fought his way through Anna Karenina because he was supposed to do so. I don't think he so much enjoyed it as felt like he had slayed a large, shivering, particularly miserable dragon when he was finished with it.
Not me. It took me a year or so to finally pick up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was in paperback and on sale and I reluctantly bought it to kill time between classes. I missed my next class because I was so busy reading the book and then became one of those obsessed Harry Potter people. I love Harry. Love him.
And I hated Scarlett. Well, no. I didn't HATE Scarlett, but when I finished the long, rambling, bodice-ripping, freaky Irish witchy thing that Scarlett was, I totally understood why people wanted to cauterize the parts of their brain that had ever journeyed with Ms. O'Hara to the land of vividly colored petticoats and stockings. (Trust me. It was...bizarre.)
So when everybody lost their minds over Eat, Pray, Love, I said, "Right. On the 'Do Not Read' list it goes." Because I'm a book snob.
Then two things happened. First, I read an article about it in Bitch magazine about the book. The article was scathing, to say the least: a sweeping condemnation on the industry that seems to insist that women must spend a lot of money to find enlightenment. Some parts of the article were spot on (the juxtaposition of Oprah's magazine talking about finding simple pleasures and then peddling 200 dollar shoes sets my teeth on edge), but the bits about Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, were particularly ugly. The biggest problem seemed to be that Elizabeth Gilbert had been paid to go find her enlightenment and, thus, it wasn't genuine.
This lead me to some research on Ms. Gilbert. I had a vague idea who she was: a sort of man's writer, right? Didn't she do something related to Coyote Ugly? What I found was that she had credentials to back up the advance her publisher gave her to travel. This woman was a serious magazine writer, with a fascinating background and some fascinating subjects. Plus, she has this to say about writing and the creative life:
I know. I love this.
When I spotted Eat, Pray, Love at Heath and Kelly's house, I immediately started reading it. I had meant to read it, but funds are still low and I had Mockingjay to read, so I had put it off. (Yes, yes, I know there's always the library. Let's talk, sometime, about the enormous fine at the library that I'm paying off due to a teething puppy and a forgetful kid. It's a great story.)
Y'all. I couldn't put this book down. I honestly believe that every woman should read it.
Yes. I said "woman." Dudes who read me, you might like the book, and by all means, follow your bliss, but this book is, to me, an inherently female book.
Note I didn't say "feminine." There is nothing girly or giggly or "let's gab over chai and muffins" about this book. (Not, my beloved MK, that there is anything wrong with muffins. We WILL have our muffins some day.) But the opening segments are filled with some of the most powerful and real descriptions of female grief and confusion that I have ever read. I've written about bathroom moments before, and Ms. Gilbert does a bang-up job of taking us to her bathroom moment in such a way that we feel the cool tiles on our hot, tear-stained cheeks. And the moment when she hears God? Wow.
Yeah, I know. But I'm a woman in search of Spirit, y'all, no matter how Oprah-y that sounds and the fact that this woman is, too, and is willing to embrace spirituality as it comes to her and then search out more of it makes reading about her journey a pleasure. The food and meditating and relationships she finds along the way are really NOT the emphasis of this novel. The finding of God and of herself (and the understanding that it's all the same thing, anyway) is central to the work and, honestly, so affirming to read about.
Our society is, unfortunately, one that wields spirituality like a sword--sometimes literally. I watch and read the news about mosques and protests and restoring Honor to America with prayer and I just cringe away from it all. This book served as a reminder to me that faith could be an experience of joy and magic and transcendence.
Now, the writing is good. It's a pleasure to read. The descriptions of food and place and experience were so finely crafted that I could taste and smell and feel them all. (The part where she ran around in an Indian night and made out with trees? Priceless.) There is humor and sorrow and worry, too--the emotions are also finely drawn, allowing a reader to experience them with the writer, which is a gift in and of itself.
I know some of you may have been putting off reading this book because of the perceived cheese factor. (Hi. That would be me.) Or because MUHGAWD, they made a movie with Julia Roberts in it. Or because EVERYBODY is reading it, including your mother-in-law, and that can't be good, can it?
It can, my friends. Read this book.
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