july’s adventures. part 1: eat, pray, love.

you may or may not know that i believe that elizabeth gilbert and i would be great friends if we met.

here’s why:

it was christmas/new years holidays in 2007, and my mom heard about a book that was becoming popular, so she read it. the entire time she was reading, she said, she was thinking of me. everything happening in the book seemed to be mirroring my life exactly. so, she passed the book on to me, asking me to read it, because she thought it would be meaningful – and she was blown away at the parallels, even down to the fact that the author and i are both named elizabeth.

the entire book was an epiphany for me. or rather, not a new epiphany, but it was like reading about all the little epiphanies i’d been having during the past year. everything that the author chronicled in her book, i was in the process of experiencing myself.

the book became a manifesto for me. and it still is. in a sense, it gave me permission to do all of the crazy things i was preparing to do. i suddenly didn’t feel alone. or i felt that there was someone out there, someone that i shared a name with even, who dreamed of rediscovering herself through a spiritual journey around the world, as much as i did. so she did. and she wrote of her journey.

and i made my journey too.

you can read the rest of the post where this came from here.

the thing is, this book, eat, pray, love, came to me just as i was setting off on my own personal journey of self-discovery. my first real adventure. an internal adventure, a searching of my heart and soul, leading to the discovery of how to live life… fully. how to be true to myself. and how that, in being true to myself, i am being true to whatever impact i can make and whatever good i can do in this world. following in my mentor’s footsteps, i also plan to (and have begun sort of) to write a memoir of my journey of self-discovery… my adventure of learning to know who i am and living from my soul.

and it is this lifelong journey of self-discovery which is the ultimate adventure, i believe. for me, that includes traveling, writing, laughing, dancing, drinking champagne, photography, theology, family, music, road trips, and so much more.

in any case, for the july photo journey, since i chose the theme of adventure, i thought i’d also choose books that i love that deal with adventures of all sorts. of course i began with eat, pray, love because it is my manifesto of adventure of sorts. so, here are the words (all eat, pray, love-related, of course!) for the first five days, and the photos to go along with them. enjoy!

day 1: beginning – i’m beginning this month as a resident of sweden. and ending it as a resident of the USA. with tons of adventures in-between!

day 2: foreign – all we were told was to dress for #outside. our#dutch friends are kidnapping us for a few hours!

day 3: fly – an amazing quote by a little japanese girl who died from leukemia after the hiroshima bomb.

day 4: freedom – nelson mandela. amazing peacemaker & fighter for equality. enough said. 

day 5:  personal – “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. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert.

our first adventure of july’s photo journey is over. time to move on to the next part tomorrow!! i’m totally ready, are you?!

take some time to discover yourself. peace.