Eat. Pray. Love.
I’m currently reading, Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It has been a long time since I’ve found a book I’ve really enjoyed. Actually, I should say, a book that I’ve let myself enjoy. The past year I’ve attempted started reading books, but never really got into them. For some reason, this book has caught my attention and isn’t letting go anytime soon. Maybe it’s fitting for this time in my life or maybe I’m just enthralled by the independence and adventure that Elizabeth strives for.
I wanted to share this passage with you:
I disappear into the person I love. I am the permeable membrane. If I love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my ass, my money, my family, my dog, my dog’s money, my dog’s time – everything. If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will project upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more, until I get so exhausted and depleted that the only way I can recover my energy is by becoming infatuated with someone else.
I do not relay these facts about myself with pride, but this is how it’s always been.
The reason I point this out is because I feel like a lot of people live this way. At times we can get so invested in relationships and focused on giving the other person our everything, that we lose who we are. It’s not a healthy thing to do, but it happens. When you truly love someone, you want to make them happy by any means, including all the things Elizabeth listed above. I think it’s important to give that never-ending-unconditional-sure-you-can-have-the-last-piece love to whomever you choose to give it to, under one condition: it does not take away from who you are.
If you give away yourself – what are you left with?
