Done and Done: #20 on 101 in 1,001

I finished reading one of the books on my list, Eat, Pray, Love. I have mixed emotions about the book. Like for example, even though it's a memoir, it's so unrealistic that people can just leave and travel around the world for a year. Granted, it would be an amazing opportunity to have. I liked that she found a spirituality that worked for her, and that spirituality helped her become a happier, more balanced person. I liked the short chapters, and I like that each chapter was a different story, so it was pretty easy to read at a slow pace (which is great during the semester). My favorite part about the book was some of the quotes I could pull out it. Some of the quotes were beautiful, some of them I could really relate to. I marked them up as I read the book. Here are some of my favorites:

"...God is not merely a blinding vision of glorious light, but He is, most of all,...the love that moves the sun and the other stars."

"Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognize yourself as a friend."

"When I realized that the only question at hand was, "How do I define pleasure?" and that I was truly in a country where people would permit me to explore the question freely, everything changed. Everything became...delicious."

"There is a reason they call God a presence -- because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only way to find Him, and now is the only time.

"At some point you have to stop because it [time] won't. You have to admit that you can't catch it. That you're not supposed to catch it. At some point...you gotta let go and sit still and let contentment to come to you."

"Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would note be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be. . . a prudent insurance policy."

"We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands."

"God dwells within you, as you."

"Over the centuries, people have tried to hold on to that state of blissful perfection through all sorts of external means -- through drugs and sex and power and adrenaline and the accumulation of pretty things -- but it doesn't keep. We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy's fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, begging for pennies from every passerby, unaware that his fortune was under him the whole time. Your treasure -- your perfection is within you already."

"But it was pure, this love that I was feeling. It was godly. I looked around the darkened valley and I could see nothing that was not God. I felt so deeply, terribly happy."

"The Yogic scriptures say that God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings in any way whatsoever that mortals choose to worship -- just so long those prayers are sincere."

"People follow different paths, straight or crooked, depending on which they consider best, according or most appropriate -- and all reach You, just as rivers enter the ocean."

"The hub of calmness -- that's your heart. That's where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you'll always find peace."

On love...
"It's still two human beings trying to get along, so it's going to become complicated. And love is always complicated. But still humans must try to love each other. We must get our hearts broken sometimes. This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something."