Elizabeth Gilbert
Other
If Satan existed, he could scarcely do better at seeding pain and destruction than to hide himself within the human mind, saying things like “You’re a failure and a fuckup, nobody understands you, you deserve some escape, you should probably just go drink something, or overeat, or spend a bunch of money, or fuck somebody, or take command over someone else’s existence, or blow up your own life, or just kill yourself—but don’t tell anybody I said any of this.” (Satan: translated from the Hebrew as “the accuser”—a shadowy internal figure I know all too intimately.)
From All the Way to the River
There are not a lot of women out there who will publicly admit to being sex and love addicts, because it sounds pretty gnarly. In fact, it is gnarly. I won’t get into salacious details here, but I will say that my addiction manifests as a sincere yet deeply misguided belief that somebody outside of myself will miraculously be able to heal me on the inside—thereby making me feel safe, cherished, and whole at last. In real-life terms, this translates as a desperate need to have my existence constantly authenticated and re-authenticated through a romantic partner’s touch, eye contact, verbal reassurance, acts of love, or mere physical presence. How much reassurance is enough for me to finally feel secure? There has never been enough, frankly. There can never be enough.
From All the Way to the River
It’s worth questioning, in every partnership: Who is playing the traditional role of the woman here?—meaning, Who is pouring more care and nourishment into this relationship (or project, or institution)? And who is the beneficiary of all that care and nourishment? And what is the cost to the overgiver?
From All the Way to the River
I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything.
From The Signature of All Things
What if we just acknowledged that we have a bad relationship, and we stuck it out, anyway? What if we admitted that we make each other nuts, we fight constantly and hardly ever have sex, but we can't live without each other, so we deal with it? And then we could spend our lives together -- in misery, but happy to not be apart.
My ultimate goal in recovery is not to end up in a healthy relationship with the perfect partner, my ultimate goal in recovery is to end up in a healthy relationship with myself.
From All the Way to the River
How high can you fly before you crash?
How long can you stay intoxicated beyond all recognition?
How long can you sustain a buzz, a bender, a peak experience, a magic carpet ride, a hot-burning flame of mania, a trip to Venus on a pink cloud?
How many days can you cut Earth School before you get called to the principal’s office?
These are all very good questions that addicts do not generally like to answer.
When pushed, however, an addict’s short response to all these questions is usually something along the lines of: As long as I can.
We will keep this ride going for as long as we can.
And we will not put it down until there is nothing left to smoke, drink, fuck, eat, spend, hoard, shoot into our veins, disappear into, or lick off the carpet in crumbs.
How long can you stay intoxicated beyond all recognition?
How long can you sustain a buzz, a bender, a peak experience, a magic carpet ride, a hot-burning flame of mania, a trip to Venus on a pink cloud?
How many days can you cut Earth School before you get called to the principal’s office?
These are all very good questions that addicts do not generally like to answer.
When pushed, however, an addict’s short response to all these questions is usually something along the lines of: As long as I can.
We will keep this ride going for as long as we can.
And we will not put it down until there is nothing left to smoke, drink, fuck, eat, spend, hoard, shoot into our veins, disappear into, or lick off the carpet in crumbs.
From All the Way to the River
Still another person said: “Rayya could very well die now behind a locked door as a degraded and angry junkie. That would be a very sad end for her. But there’s only one thing that could make that death even sadder—and that would be if you were sitting on the floor right next to her, also behind that locked door, trapped in that nightmare with her. That would be really tragic, because now we’re talking about two destroyed lives, instead of just one. Don’t let it happen.
From All the Way to the River
Saint Anthony said, in his solitude, he sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and other times he found angels who looked like devils. When asked how he could tell the difference, the saint said that you can only tell which is which by the way you feel after the creature has left your company.
From Eat, Pray, Love
I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in God. You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.
From Eat, Pray, Love
You can’t give an addict a plan because we can’t follow a plan—not even our own plans. (Especially not our own plans.) Until the miracle of recovery happens, we addicts only ever have one plan: Use.
From All the Way to the River
It was difficult to know where to find comfort, especially since I could no longer medicate myself with my oldest and deepest fantasy: that someday in the future a magical person would show up, fall in love with me, and fix everything.
Nobody would be showing up now.
There would be no fixing of anything.
Nobody would be showing up now.
There would be no fixing of anything.
From All the Way to the River
My mind was spinning around this inflaming and infuriating thought: Why can’t I be a normal person who does normal things like normal people?
That’s when I heard Rayya’s voice.
“Because you aren’t normal, babe,” she said. “You’re an addict. And addicts can’t do normal things like normal people.
That’s when I heard Rayya’s voice.
“Because you aren’t normal, babe,” she said. “You’re an addict. And addicts can’t do normal things like normal people.
From All the Way to the River
What codependency feels like at first: “You complete me!” or “I will be your hero!” What codependency feels like later on: watching in horror as someone else’s life passes before your eyes; wondering in utter bewilderment where your own life went. The final destination of codependency: rage, emptiness, loneliness, despair. The anthem of the exhausted codependent: “After all I’ve done for you!
From All the Way to the River
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.
From Eat, Pray, Love
If Satan existed, he could scarcely do better at seeding pain and destruction than to hide himself within the human mind, saying things like “You’re a failure and a fuckup, nobody understands you, you deserve some escape, you should probably just go drink something, or overeat, or spend a bunch of money, or fuck somebody, or take command over someone else’s existence, or blow up your own life, or just kill yourself—but don’t tell anybody I said any of this.” (Satan: translated from the Hebrew as “the accuser”—a shadowy internal figure I know all too intimately.)
From All the Way to the River
There are not a lot of women out there who will publicly admit to being sex and love addicts, because it sounds pretty gnarly. In fact, it is gnarly. I won’t get into salacious details here, but I will say that my addiction manifests as a sincere yet deeply misguided belief that somebody outside of myself will miraculously be able to heal me on the inside—thereby making me feel safe, cherished, and whole at last. In real-life terms, this translates as a desperate need to have my existence constantly authenticated and re-authenticated through a romantic partner’s touch, eye contact, verbal reassurance, acts of love, or mere physical presence. How much reassurance is enough for me to finally feel secure? There has never been enough, frankly. There can never be enough.
From All the Way to the River
It’s worth questioning, in every partnership: Who is playing the traditional role of the woman here?—meaning, Who is pouring more care and nourishment into this relationship (or project, or institution)? And who is the beneficiary of all that care and nourishment? And what is the cost to the overgiver?
From All the Way to the River
I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything.
From The Signature of All Things
What if we just acknowledged that we have a bad relationship, and we stuck it out, anyway? What if we admitted that we make each other nuts, we fight constantly and hardly ever have sex, but we can't live without each other, so we deal with it? And then we could spend our lives together -- in misery, but happy to not be apart.
My ultimate goal in recovery is not to end up in a healthy relationship with the perfect partner, my ultimate goal in recovery is to end up in a healthy relationship with myself.
From All the Way to the River
How high can you fly before you crash?
How long can you stay intoxicated beyond all recognition?
How long can you sustain a buzz, a bender, a peak experience, a magic carpet ride, a hot-burning flame of mania, a trip to Venus on a pink cloud?
How many days can you cut Earth School before you get called to the principal’s office?
These are all very good questions that addicts do not generally like to answer.
When pushed, however, an addict’s short response to all these questions is usually something along the lines of: As long as I can.
We will keep this ride going for as long as we can.
And we will not put it down until there is nothing left to smoke, drink, fuck, eat, spend, hoard, shoot into our veins, disappear into, or lick off the carpet in crumbs.
How long can you stay intoxicated beyond all recognition?
How long can you sustain a buzz, a bender, a peak experience, a magic carpet ride, a hot-burning flame of mania, a trip to Venus on a pink cloud?
How many days can you cut Earth School before you get called to the principal’s office?
These are all very good questions that addicts do not generally like to answer.
When pushed, however, an addict’s short response to all these questions is usually something along the lines of: As long as I can.
We will keep this ride going for as long as we can.
And we will not put it down until there is nothing left to smoke, drink, fuck, eat, spend, hoard, shoot into our veins, disappear into, or lick off the carpet in crumbs.
From All the Way to the River
Still another person said: “Rayya could very well die now behind a locked door as a degraded and angry junkie. That would be a very sad end for her. But there’s only one thing that could make that death even sadder—and that would be if you were sitting on the floor right next to her, also behind that locked door, trapped in that nightmare with her. That would be really tragic, because now we’re talking about two destroyed lives, instead of just one. Don’t let it happen.
From All the Way to the River
Saint Anthony said, in his solitude, he sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and other times he found angels who looked like devils. When asked how he could tell the difference, the saint said that you can only tell which is which by the way you feel after the creature has left your company.
From Eat, Pray, Love
I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in God. You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.
From Eat, Pray, Love
You can’t give an addict a plan because we can’t follow a plan—not even our own plans. (Especially not our own plans.) Until the miracle of recovery happens, we addicts only ever have one plan: Use.
From All the Way to the River
It was difficult to know where to find comfort, especially since I could no longer medicate myself with my oldest and deepest fantasy: that someday in the future a magical person would show up, fall in love with me, and fix everything.
Nobody would be showing up now.
There would be no fixing of anything.
Nobody would be showing up now.
There would be no fixing of anything.
From All the Way to the River
My mind was spinning around this inflaming and infuriating thought: Why can’t I be a normal person who does normal things like normal people?
That’s when I heard Rayya’s voice.
“Because you aren’t normal, babe,” she said. “You’re an addict. And addicts can’t do normal things like normal people.
That’s when I heard Rayya’s voice.
“Because you aren’t normal, babe,” she said. “You’re an addict. And addicts can’t do normal things like normal people.
From All the Way to the River
What codependency feels like at first: “You complete me!” or “I will be your hero!” What codependency feels like later on: watching in horror as someone else’s life passes before your eyes; wondering in utter bewilderment where your own life went. The final destination of codependency: rage, emptiness, loneliness, despair. The anthem of the exhausted codependent: “After all I’ve done for you!
From All the Way to the River
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.
From Eat, Pray, Love
If Satan existed, he could scarcely do better at seeding pain and destruction than to hide himself within the human mind, saying things like “You’re a failure and a fuckup, nobody understands you, you deserve some escape, you should probably just go drink something, or overeat, or spend a bunch of money, or fuck somebody, or take command over someone else’s existence, or blow up your own life, or just kill yourself—but don’t tell anybody I said any of this.” (Satan: translated from the Hebrew as “the accuser”—a shadowy internal figure I know all too intimately.)
From All the Way to the River
There are not a lot of women out there who will publicly admit to being sex and love addicts, because it sounds pretty gnarly. In fact, it is gnarly. I won’t get into salacious details here, but I will say that my addiction manifests as a sincere yet deeply misguided belief that somebody outside of myself will miraculously be able to heal me on the inside—thereby making me feel safe, cherished, and whole at last. In real-life terms, this translates as a desperate need to have my existence constantly authenticated and re-authenticated through a romantic partner’s touch, eye contact, verbal reassurance, acts of love, or mere physical presence. How much reassurance is enough for me to finally feel secure? There has never been enough, frankly. There can never be enough.
From All the Way to the River
It’s worth questioning, in every partnership: Who is playing the traditional role of the woman here?—meaning, Who is pouring more care and nourishment into this relationship (or project, or institution)? And who is the beneficiary of all that care and nourishment? And what is the cost to the overgiver?
From All the Way to the River
I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as though he had not heard her. "We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us. This supreme intelligence longs to be known. It calls out to us. It draws us close to its mystery, and grants us these remarkable minds, in order that we try to reach for it. It wants us to find it. It wants union with us, more than anything.
From The Signature of All Things
What if we just acknowledged that we have a bad relationship, and we stuck it out, anyway? What if we admitted that we make each other nuts, we fight constantly and hardly ever have sex, but we can't live without each other, so we deal with it? And then we could spend our lives together -- in misery, but happy to not be apart.
My ultimate goal in recovery is not to end up in a healthy relationship with the perfect partner, my ultimate goal in recovery is to end up in a healthy relationship with myself.
From All the Way to the River
How high can you fly before you crash?
How long can you stay intoxicated beyond all recognition?
How long can you sustain a buzz, a bender, a peak experience, a magic carpet ride, a hot-burning flame of mania, a trip to Venus on a pink cloud?
How many days can you cut Earth School before you get called to the principal’s office?
These are all very good questions that addicts do not generally like to answer.
When pushed, however, an addict’s short response to all these questions is usually something along the lines of: As long as I can.
We will keep this ride going for as long as we can.
And we will not put it down until there is nothing left to smoke, drink, fuck, eat, spend, hoard, shoot into our veins, disappear into, or lick off the carpet in crumbs.
How long can you stay intoxicated beyond all recognition?
How long can you sustain a buzz, a bender, a peak experience, a magic carpet ride, a hot-burning flame of mania, a trip to Venus on a pink cloud?
How many days can you cut Earth School before you get called to the principal’s office?
These are all very good questions that addicts do not generally like to answer.
When pushed, however, an addict’s short response to all these questions is usually something along the lines of: As long as I can.
We will keep this ride going for as long as we can.
And we will not put it down until there is nothing left to smoke, drink, fuck, eat, spend, hoard, shoot into our veins, disappear into, or lick off the carpet in crumbs.
From All the Way to the River
Still another person said: “Rayya could very well die now behind a locked door as a degraded and angry junkie. That would be a very sad end for her. But there’s only one thing that could make that death even sadder—and that would be if you were sitting on the floor right next to her, also behind that locked door, trapped in that nightmare with her. That would be really tragic, because now we’re talking about two destroyed lives, instead of just one. Don’t let it happen.
From All the Way to the River
Saint Anthony said, in his solitude, he sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and other times he found angels who looked like devils. When asked how he could tell the difference, the saint said that you can only tell which is which by the way you feel after the creature has left your company.
From Eat, Pray, Love
I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in God. You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.
From Eat, Pray, Love
You can’t give an addict a plan because we can’t follow a plan—not even our own plans. (Especially not our own plans.) Until the miracle of recovery happens, we addicts only ever have one plan: Use.
From All the Way to the River
It was difficult to know where to find comfort, especially since I could no longer medicate myself with my oldest and deepest fantasy: that someday in the future a magical person would show up, fall in love with me, and fix everything.
Nobody would be showing up now.
There would be no fixing of anything.
Nobody would be showing up now.
There would be no fixing of anything.
From All the Way to the River
My mind was spinning around this inflaming and infuriating thought: Why can’t I be a normal person who does normal things like normal people?
That’s when I heard Rayya’s voice.
“Because you aren’t normal, babe,” she said. “You’re an addict. And addicts can’t do normal things like normal people.
That’s when I heard Rayya’s voice.
“Because you aren’t normal, babe,” she said. “You’re an addict. And addicts can’t do normal things like normal people.
From All the Way to the River
What codependency feels like at first: “You complete me!” or “I will be your hero!” What codependency feels like later on: watching in horror as someone else’s life passes before your eyes; wondering in utter bewilderment where your own life went. The final destination of codependency: rage, emptiness, loneliness, despair. The anthem of the exhausted codependent: “After all I’ve done for you!
From All the Way to the River
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.
From Eat, Pray, Love