Epiphany!

As I am getting older and older, I have really realized a lot of things. (Things I never thought I would approve of or disapprove of.)

I recently read Eat. Pray. Love. (Thank you Katie Farmer!) and it was truly the best book I have ever read. It has humor, honesty and harmony. If that at all makes sense. She begins as a struggling woman, going through a divorce (a brutal one) but mainly just as a lost soul. However, she prevails and she is so at peace at the end of the book I really want to re-live all of her experiences... She is a liberal, yes I said it, a LIBERAL. And I absolutely LOVE her! How crazy! But what is most crazy is that book made me really open up my eyes.

So new things in my life:

1. I am now a "moderate." Meaning, I am socially liberal, but financially conservative.

2. I totally support gay marriage. (This was not just because of my new points of views, but I know so many gay people & they deserve the same "freedoms" we do. & Love is Love and if you have it, you're damn lucky.)

3. I have finally become a lot more honest about religion...

      -I need to stop lying to myself, I am in no way religious. Yes I believe in God.. But I think all religions are interesting and I think everyone basically wants to believe in some "god," but through a different point of view. And however they choose is fine, I just need to find my way first. Without people trying to pull me in a particular way.. I mean I am not an atheist or anything, I just want to find my "path to God" on my own...

4. I totally am going to start doing yoga. I need some peace in my life, I need a way to get away and I think it is the perfect way.

5. I am going to start reading again.

6. I am going to start documenting my life. (Through this, obviously.) But just so I can look back on hard times, fun times, loving times, fighting times, joyous times, etc. and just see that I made it through better on the other side.

"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. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it."

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts."

"I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to everything this man say about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion."

— Elizabeth Gilbert

<3K