Musings inspired by Oprah

The buzz around Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" is exhausting. I want to read her book to see what it is exactly that has so many women up in arms over. What message does this woman have? From watching Oprah, I've gathered what she went through, and why she needed to "get away". But, on this last episode of Oprah, so many women were like "Oh, I was so inspired by her that i just left and went to Bali" or "I just felt I needed to be there". And these women just dropped everything and travelled to Bali or Italy. Hell, I'd love to do that too, and have a deep, meaningful spiritual journey. I have a feeling that this isn't Ms. Gilbert's message.

It's not being in those places that gives you the deep and meaningful spiritual awakening. And, thank goodness Oprah added stories of women who read the book and felt inspired to do things in a simpler way - like creating a space all their own out of an underused space in their house, or finding time for themselves to reevaluate what they were living, or finding religion WITHOUT traveling to Bali to meet a yogi.

I think maybe the message in the book is to listen to yourself? Instead of listening to what you think you hear. I'm not sure. But I'm pretty sure that the message isn't "drop your life and go to Bali". I could be wrong.

So, instead of doing my homework that I desperately need to be doing (but it's so tedious and boring. I don't find it interesting at all, even though I know that it's pertinient information), I'm watching old TiVo'd episodes of Oprah, contemplating the spiritual journeys of other women. What the hell. I'm not trying to pass judgement on their journeys, I just think maybe that wasn't the point?