eat, pray, love.

Another memorable bookclub in Donna's lovely new back yard. (thank you, Donna! ...and darn, I didn't take a picture of those beautiful pots!)

Can't begin to capture the conversation, but I wanted to share a few highlights before we forget them all!

First, links to the websites where I found discussion material: Elizabeth Gilbert's official website and Penguin Books reading guide (the main site also looks to have some good recommendations for books).

*(from the book p. 260) ...people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you...if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. ...once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.

--we agree - and love that happiness requires active participation

*(from the penguin guide, Elizabeth Gilbert's words) I remember my mother musing once that she thought women had been "sold a bill of goods" during the 1970s, in terms of being promised that they could have everything simultaneously - family, career, marriage, privacy, equality, femininity, and autonomy. Reality has taught us that no woman can build an honest life without sacrificing something along the way. Deciding what will be sacrificed is not easy. But the good news is this: increasingly the decision is ours.

--and it's a hard one. and we need to be good about not questioning the decisions of others or making each other defend those hard decisions.

*how do you feed your soul?

*what are you? a catholic, a jew, a good person, a mother, a teacher, me, ....

*boo to the "ugly american"

*what's your Myers-Briggs type? here's a quiz to find out (I'm an INTJ)

*any good tools, tips, techniques on meditation? who does yoga?

*is Atlanta's word "transient" or "blackmecca"?

*keep an eye out for the movie - starring Julia Roberts :-)

*get out - the movie Coyote Ugly is based a memoir she published in GQ??!!

And what's our next book? not one of these - and I'm so sorry I didn't take notes for Donna's hilarious review of the "not picked":

Nope - Donna has selected:
Funny in Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas. Go - get the book now. Only three weeks til our next meeting at Terri's!

In closing - LOVE you all!