“I belong here’ means that I belong here on this planet, where I have seldom felt safe or normal. It means that I belong here in this body, which I have rarely inhabited and which I have freely given away countless times (along with my heart, my time, my spirit, my home, and my money) to many other people to use for their purposes. It means that I belong to whatever divine force went through all the trouble to create me, and that my belonging is not dependent upon my ‘getting it right’ – whatever that means.
I belong here even when I get everything wrong.
Maybe especially then.
‘I belong here’ also means that I belong in my own story, even if it sometimes takes me a few chapters to get around to remembering that.
Most of all, though it means that I belong in any room where addicts are gathered in a circle, humbly admitting to themselves, to each other, and to the Gods of their own understanding that they are powerless over their addictions and that their lives have become unmanageable.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert, “All the Way to the River: Love, Loss and Liberation” (available Sept 9)
A GIFT becomes a GIF! It’s been such a joy teaching in Baja this week with Liz Gilbert and Tererai Trent. Lizzy gave me an advance copy of her new book, coming out in five months, and the moment I received this gift, we spontaneously whirled like dervishes and it was captured by our staff photographer (and visual shaman) Cookie Kinkead. As you can read from the excerpt at the start of this post, this is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love – or to any other passion, substance, or cravings – and who yearns, at long last, for liberation. I would recommend you pre-order it.
Thanks to Cookie Kinkead for this GIF. @cookiekinkeadphotography
-Chip
P.S. Our very own MEA Experience Facilitator Daniel Weinzveg had a TEDx talk come out this week on YouTube. I highly recommend you watch 9-minute “The Surprising Cure for Loneliness.”