Making it a movie

There are experiences that change your life. There are travels that change your life. There are people that change your life. Their are circumstances that change your life. And sometimes there are books that change your life.

Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat.Pray.Love appeared in my life at exactly the right moment and at exactly the right time. I laughed, I wept, I lamented, I pondered, I dreamed and I realized how utter complex and complicated this thing called life is and that that is indeed the only truth we ever have to learn. It's how we learn to deal and handle that complexity that is indeed the purpose of the human experience.

And sometimes handling it means falling apart on the bathroom floor and other times it means walking with divine grace and dignity. And that is what Ms. Gilbert's book did for me. It reminded me that spiritual practice at an ashram in India and twirling pasta under the moonlight in Italy are two sides of the same coin - they are not separate, ever.

And now, this book is being Hollywooded. And first I wanted to cry because my experience with this book was so embodied due in part from my own travels to Italy and Bali (India will happen at sometime), that I didn't want any of that to be squashed by the picture perfect images that come from a motion picture. But then I saw that Julia Roberts is playing the lead and my heart softened, just a little. I don't know her, but I think she is the real thing, as authentic as a person whose life is so surreal can get. And so, when I saw the image of her riding through the rice fields of Ubud, I just smiled.

Because at the end of the day, young or old, famous or not, this book is about being real, being authentic, loosing yourself, finding yourself and having the ability to laugh about it all and in the end, eat the big bowl of pasta.