Were you ever lucky enough to read the perfect book at the perfect time it your life?  It is an amazing feeling for any person, and not just for book nerds like me.  Today I finished my most recent perfect book, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert.   It is a book I’ve picked up and put down in bookstores for several years now.  Lately, I’ve been lingering by it, and about eight days before it was mailed to me as a gift, I almost bought it.  I didn’t buy any books that day, and I can’t answer as to why.  But when my friend sent me this book as an act of kindness due to complications from my hysterectomy, I knew somehow that destiny wanted me to read it, and as a gift rather than my own free will, because it was fates way of sending me a message – You must read this, and now.  This book was my perfect book of 2009 because I’ve been struggling with my health, and the loss of adventure and living life to the fullest.  When you have some of the stupid conditions I have, you can’t even make it out of bed on some weekends after a long week of work.  I miss doing things like driving across the country for 19 days in a $75,000 borrowed Cadillac, seeing a pack of wild mustangs running through the dessert while rock climbing, snorkeling under the influence in the possible shark filled waters of Puerto Rico, or hiking in Yellowstone violently hung over after a hard night of drinking with college professors and Australian cowboys.  I once traveled the world, had many adventures with total strangers, good friends and my hubby, and took notes and photos of it all.  It is a dream of mine to combine my love of travel and writing and do something like what Ms. Gilbert has done, by writing an inspiring book about my adventures in life and how they healed my soul.  I have decided that I’m going to stop thinking of myself as sick, and perhaps I can get back my old outer strength by having a strong inner strength first.  I can’t afford traveling to Bali like Ms. Gilbert did, but maybe I can find something here in the state of Michigan that I once had while on my road trip out west.  In the end, life isn’t about what you wore, where you lived, what you did for a living, but how you lived and enjoyed your life.  Now that I’m losing my job in two months due to a lot of unfair and crappy reasons, it is a perfect time to try and find myself again. 

This book is based on the real life experiences of the writer and her one year quest to do what she always wanted to do, which was learn to speak Italian, to study under an Indian Guru to find her spiritual path, and to learn how to live in this world and enjoy its delights while devoting herself to God.  I find all three quests fascinating, especially her desire to spend four months in Rome learning the language.  I am an Italian who was raised in an Italian home where people only spoke the language when they needed to talk in private or needed to swear badly.  I never learned the language (Just the swear words) and I’ve always wanted to experience Italy as a person rather than just a world traveler.  As for the yoga and the search within, I’ll say that I’ve always been fascinated by eastern religions and philosophy, and I give thanks to The Beatles, my English professor Dr. R., and an ex-wife of an old friend who introduced me to the beliefs of the east.  I’ve never been able to pick one religion and stick with it, as I wasn’t raised as a true Catholic (Being a bastard and all in the 70s) but being raised by them certainly gave me the old fashioned guilt.  Having a spiritual guide sounds very interesting to me.  And learning to live in the world and enjoy life, who doesn’t want that?  So, after reading the first seven or eight chapters, I was in it for the long haul. 

I don’t want to give away too much, that is not fair to anyone who hasn’t read this book.  Let me say that I loved this book, loved it so much that I had to stop reading it for an entire week, so I could savor it.  I love to travel, to write, and, my god, to eat, and I have been searching for my own religion and inner peace since childhood.  This book really has me thinking about my life, and what I want to do with the rest of it.  And, one spoiler, just wait until you get to page 274.  I’m honestly sad that I finished this book today, because no longer can I look forward to reading it in small doses every day. Eat, Pray, Love is the best book I’ve read in all of 2009.

“[My guru] says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. 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. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it…”
—Elizabeth Gilbert

If any of you have had the same experience with another book, please share your story here.  Also, those who have read this book, tell me what your WORD is.  Mine has always been ADVENTURE.