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Sparkle Plenty: Why People Relate to Elizabeth Gilbert, and Her Writing
My friend Barb and I are watching the lemon-yellow sun drop over the mountains behind Abiquiu Lake. The last moments of light have created a glittering path of sparkles across the wide swath of water. Barb smiles and says, “My mother would have called that ‘sparkle plenty.’” Earlier, as we were walking with our dogs along the lakeshore, Barb shared that her mother used to tell her, growing up, that “you have to work hard at being happy,” an attitude toward life that she passed on to her daughter.
Our discussion led me to remember a similar quote, by the writer Elizabeth Gilbert, in her phenomenon of a book, Eat, Pray Love:
“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.” This is a belief I happen to strongly share.
I recently uprooted my life, threw all the elements of my life up in the air like confetti, and looked around to see where they would land. Mine landed in a bohemian adobe high on a bluff overlooking Albuquerque, the largest metropolis in the Land of Enchantment. And now I am finding myself doing things like dancing amongst the hollyhocks, surrounded by low, adobe walls, while the scent of petrichor — rain falling in the desert — fills the air. I look around at the chili-shaped lights, smile at my partner, close my eyes, and…
