Eat, Pray, Love

My good friend and fellow Hipmama, Amnesty, gave me this book eons ago. Somehow it was lost for over a year, only to be discovered under my daughter's dresser earlier this week.
With kids, things end up in the oddest places.

Thinking about how well Amnesty knows me, I figured I'd like this book, but I didn't count on it being so......inspiring.  I realize how cheesy that sounds, but it really is inspiring.  I'm not very far into it and I already want to enroll in foreign language classes just in case sometime in the future, I decide to take a year off and live somewhere that I currently can't even locate on a map.

Maybe I haven't written about this before but I have what my Grandma lovingly refers to as "Itchy feet". Meaning, I get restless when I'm in one place too long. Amazingly, that doesn't seem to have caused any problems in my marriage, but I do get a wild hair every couple of years and decide I would like to just pick up and move. It really doesn't even matter where. And if you know me at all, you know this about me.
I mean, I didn't pick up and move 900 miles away at the age of 17 because I likes sitting still.  I may not be adventurous when it comes to roller coasters or jumping off the high dive, but when it comes to travelling & discovering new places, I only need about an hour's notice to collect my belongings and then I'd happily be on the road to who-knows-where.
Just ask my sister in law. We once drove 36 hours to Wyoming at the drop of a hat, just because we could, with my brother and 5 children in tow, two of which were 7 week old babies, only to end up visiting 7 States in a matter of one week.

But, that's not the only feelings this book has been bringing up.
Notice the middle word in the title: "Pray".
I'm not a religious person and have thought myself an Atheist since I was a teenager, but I don't think that's an accurate description of the way I really feel.
I am not really a "believer" but my husband was just teasing me last night about being a superstitious person, and it's true, I really am, and how can you be superstitious without believing that there are forces at work that are greater than yourself? Something that you cannot see, cannot touch, cannot name, but you can feel it all the same?  I personally call this thing "The Universe" or sometimes "Mother Nature" because that's what feels most accurate to me.
I really don't know if I just like the idea of there being something guiding me or if I truly believe there is.

Whichever it is, I have to say that "Eat, Pray, Love" is so far an amazing read, and I highly recommend it.
Any book that can evoke strong feelings like attachment, or longing, or that makes you question yourself, is good for your soul.
These are the ways in which we grow.