Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch--there's not a chance. Elizabeth Gilbert More Quotes by Elizabeth Gilbert More Quotes From Elizabeth Gilbert To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous. Elizabeth Gilbert marriage pregnancy love You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight. Elizabeth Gilbert beautiful beauty life Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core of the thing - right in the hub of the wheel - not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place, where you can get frayed and crazy. 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. Elizabeth Gilbert passion crazy peace At that moment of realization (that union with God is always present), that's when God let me go, let me slide through His fingers with this last compassionate, unspoken message: You may return here once you have fully come to understand that you are always here. Elizabeth Gilbert unions realization may But at some point you have to make peace with what you were given and if God wanted me to be a shy girl with think, dark hair, He would have made me that way, but He didn't. Useful, then, might be to accept how I was made and embody myself fully therein. Elizabeth Gilbert girl dark thinking This is a nice metaphor, too, about mothers and daughters - that when it came time for me to make my own, I was making a completely different garden than the one that my mom has. They don't look like they came from relatives. Hers is a very productive and pragmatic vegetable garden, and mine is a ridiculous overabundance of useless plants. It doesn't feed anybody, it doesn't serve any purpose. Elizabeth Gilbert daughter mom mother Don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. Elizabeth Gilbert pieces might jobs The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams. Elizabeth Gilbert trust hope dream Success isn't about acquiring things, it's about discovering your life purpose and following the call Elizabeth Gilbert acquiring-things discovering purpose That’s the thing about a human life-there’s no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed. Elizabeth Gilbert variables life-lesson groups You might get nothing out of it at all except a beautiful, long life where all you did was follow your gorgeous curiosity. And that should be enough too. Elizabeth Gilbert curiosity beautiful long we must take care of our families wherever we find them. Elizabeth Gilbert family care home Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend. Elizabeth Gilbert never-forget self-worth once-upon-a-time Men go into marriage with virtually no expectations whatsoever. Ten years later, the men are delightfully surprised to find out that it's actually kind of nice, and the women have sort of had to take a nose dive from what they thought it was going to be. Elizabeth Gilbert nice men years Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope Elizabeth Gilbert lost-love heartbreak hope You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words. Elizabeth Gilbert family relationship years When I get lonely these days, I think: So BE lonely, Liz. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings. Elizabeth Gilbert being-single lonely loneliness When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered off the path, that you'll find your way back to the trailhead any moment now. Then night falls again and again, and you still have no idea where you are, and it's time to admit that you have bewildered yourself so far off the path that you don't even know from which direction the sun rises anymore. Elizabeth Gilbert depression life fall A fish and a bird may indeed fall in love, but where shall they live? Elizabeth Gilbert falling-in-love may bird Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying "Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding. Elizabeth Gilbert saying-yes understanding way