The Silly Putty-like malleability of the institution [marriage], in fact, is the only reason we still have the thing at all. Very few people... would accept marriage on it's thirteenth-century terms. Marriage survives, in other words, precisely because it evolves. (Though I suppose this would not be a very persuasive argument to those who probably also don't believe in evolution).
Elizabeth GilbertI equal parts loved him and could not stand him. I couldn't wake him to share in my distress.
Elizabeth GilbertAnd we have a little herb garden, which survived the winter thanks to global warming. It makes me feel like a cool, old Italian housewife, that I kept my rosemary alive outside all winter.
Elizabeth GilbertWhen I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?
Elizabeth GilbertI have my own set of survival techniques. I am patient. I know how to pack light. But my one might travel talent is that I can make friends with anybody. I can make friends with the dead. If there isnโt anyone else around to talk to, I could probably make friends with a four-foot-tall pile of sheetrock. That is why Iโm not afraid to travel to the most remote places in the world, not if there are human beings there to meet. People asked me before I left, โdo you have friends [there]?โ and I would just shake my head no, thinking to myself, But I will.
Elizabeth Gilbert