eat pray love

I spent yesterday in the lap of luxury.

My girlfriend dropped me off at her mom's house for the day which is right in Palm Beach and closer to the airport. I took a walk along a path that runs along the inter coastal, walked to the beach, swam in the ocean for at least three hours (with the water to myself -- definitely the right time of year for solitude), and I finally read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert which scores of people have been telling me I had to read. And I chatted with God all day.

Eat, Pray, Love is the perfect beach read for any one who is stressed out by life and needs time to reflect on life, love and relationship with God. I swear, it was the first time I felt a deep, kindred spirit with another writer since I read The Catcher in the Rye what seemed like 700 times in junior high. Although, now that I mention it, Holden Caulfield was a character; whereas, this book chronicled the real-life story of a NY writer seeking her spiritual path.

As an aside, there were so many times over the past decade where people would tell me how much they loved Sex and the City because it reminded them of themselves and their friends. As much as I found it somewhat interesting in a trainwreck-ish way when I did watch, it really wasn't my thing. I could never relate to any of those characters and not one reminded me of any of my friends. They were too over-the-top. Samantha? Come on. What the . . . ?

Liz, the author of this book, is much more like me and my closest girlfriends. And, like them, she is funny as hell. I couldn't put the book down.

In any event, you'll have to read the book to understand the following references, but God and I signed a contract yesterday on the beach. (I asked Him if others needed to sign with us and He didn't think so but said they were welcome to. Martin Scorsese chimed right in as the first to agree to sign. Thank you Martin!) And I found "my word": believe. It doesn't match the word for Rochester (which I still can't quite figure out but is definitely something more secondrate and underdog-ish but also explains why I don't feel as if I belong here) but I'm hoping, with time, it'll match, or become, the word for my family.

I went to visit my girlfriend Laura to relax, go to temple for Rosh Hashanah, commune with God and attempt, in the course of three days, like someone who agrees to close her eyes and fall backwards into the arms of her newfound compatriots at rehab, to learn how to relax and trust in God. It was a big Mission, but I returned with a tagline: experience, enjoy, extend. In other words, I need to begin accepting God's blessings, taking more pleasure in life, savoring every moment and sharing this with others.