Letter to Elizabeth Gilbert

Dear Liz, 

May I call you that?  Because that's what you are to me - Liz.  I consider you as close as a friend, or maybe even closer.  You are more than a friend.  You are my mentor, my guide, my guru.  Actually, you are my Jesus.  And your book "Eat Pray Love" is my Bible.

Do I sound too pompous?  I didn't mean that, for what I am sharing is coming from the deepest regions of my heart.  This is the truth I am telling.  You, girl, changed my life.  Your book and your thoughts, like you just plucked them from my mind. You were talking to me in your book, straight to me, like a dear friend at a bar with a drink in her hand, telling it like it is without avoidance and embellishments because the drink made her sincere enough to speak her mind.

And I owe it to you, those sleepless nights on the bathroom floor, trying to contact God, waiting for the sign that He exists, asking for the meaning of life.  Wanting to write, but being scared to start.  Conquering my fear and taking the first step.  Signing up for the online class.  Loving every minute of it.  Finding my voice.  Feeling like I finally fit in, like I found my niche in life. Blogging at 1:19 am about the writing life.  Publishing in the newspaper.  Having something to say, and somebody to read it.  Trying to conquer myself.  Stepping out of the comfort zone.  Listen to the voice in my head, dictating poetic verses to me in the middle of driving.  

You, Liz, are not just a famous writer to me, you are an example of what a thirty-something woman like me can achieve if she puts her mind to it and is not too scared to share with the world her innermost thoughts, even though some people might say they sound too self-absorbed.  I am too very much self-absorbed and melodramatic, but it seems like there is a market out there for people like us, and we will be heard.  

Liz, the Seeker's soul, the childless woman by choice, the Enlightened, I have so much in common with you, and I hope that one day, I will be able to tell it all to you face to face.  We will share a drink at a dim quiet bar, soothed by a mellow Miles Davis' saxophone, or Nina Simone's wistful voice.  Dream big, that's what they say.  So I am dreaming.

With great love and respect,

Lu

XOXO