Blog Challenge, Day 14

Today's challenge is to write about a non-fiction book. I chose "Eat Pray Love", by Elizabeth Gilbert.

When I first started reading this book, I had a really hard time getting into it, but by the time I had finished, I loved it. I tried to look at it as a book I was reading to learn from, rather than just read for fun. There were so many parts in the book that seemed to offer such good advice or were just what I needed to hear. One of my favorite quotes from the book is from when she is in India (the "pray" part), and it says:

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life – whether I will see them as curses or opportunities (and on the occasions when I can't rise to the most optimistic viewpoint, because I'm feeling two damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to change my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of voice I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts".

I liked this quote because it was a good reminder that even though there are definitely times in life that seem out of control, there is always something that we do have a say over, and that makes it easier to have a positive outlook and keep going.