One thing I do know about intimacy is that there are certain natural laws which govern the sexual experience of two people, and that these laws cannot be budged any more than gravity can be negotiated with. To feel physically comfortable with someone else's body is not a decision you can make. It has very little to do with how two people think or act or talk or even look. The mysterious magnet is either there, buried somewhere deep behind the sternum, or it is not. When it isn't there (as I have learned in the past, with heartbreaking clarity) you can no more force it to exist than a surgeon can force a patient's body to accept a kidney from the wrong donor. My friend Annie says it all comes down to one simple question: "Do you want your belly pressed against this person's belly forever --or not?
Elizabeth Gilbert
Related To feel physically comfortable with someone else's body is not a decision you make. It has very litt... ELIZABETH GILBERT The mysterious magnet is either there, buried somewhere deep behind the sternum, or it is not. ELIZABETH GILBERT To be, or not to be, that is the question. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be. GOLDA MEIR To be or not to be. That's not really a question. JEAN-LUC GODARD 2. Overcommitment and time pressure are the greatest destroyers of marriages. It takes time to devel... JAMES C. DOBSON To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being. TOM ROBBINS Do no look for that ideal person to be with, be that ideal person. JEFFREY FRY Do the thing and you will have the power. RALPH WALDO EMERSON The quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it. But if you break it, a surpr... C.S. LEWIS I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My hones... SOREN KIERKEGAARD I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My hon... SøREN KIERKEGAARD It is a lie. ARTHUR MILLER With this kind of injury you have to be patient and wait. There is no definitive on whether to opera... DR PETER GREGORY If you think you can do it, you can. JOHN BURROUGHS You have what others don't have. This is good news which means you can do what others can't do! You ... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER Do I have the courage of being a ruthless man to myself with the complete knowledge on my manner or ... FEREIDOON YAZDI In order to honor God with your wealth, you first have to admit that you are rich. Most people won't... CRAIG GROESCHEL If you do not feel comfortable with your body as it is, you are not likely to feel comfortable shari... LONA SANDON If you can dream it, you can do it. ENZO FERRARI There is some magic in wealth, which can thus make persons pay their court to it, when it does not e... ANN RADCLIFFE Success is a Journey: so, don’t forget to pack your COURAGE: to face the obstacles heading your wa... PHILIP T. M. Cease to think of an impossibility and you will seize an opportunity for productivity. Excellence co... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR It's a very frightening feeling to feel like you can have a busted taillight or wear a hoodie or... STERLING K. BROWN To disagree does not equate to ill intent. It says either, "You have not provided me with sufficient... LASHAN DIA GRAY Be all that you can be. You can be great. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA The best thing you can do for your kids is to show them God working in you on a daily basis. CRAIG GROESCHEL The longer I love, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more impor... CHARLES R. SWINDOLL If it's what you do and you can do it, then you do it. VAN MORRISON It ain't bragging if you can do it. DIZZY DEAN The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more impor... CHARLES SWINDOLL The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more impor... CHARLES R. SWINDOLL Religion [dharma] is that where there is no irreligion (adharma, immorality). Religion cannot exist ... DADA BHAGWAN To be mad is worse than not to be if this is what it is. JOHNNY RICH Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy "To go outside, and there perchance to stay Or to re... HENRY N. BEARD Responsibility begins with the willingness to be cause in the matter of one's life. Ultimately, it i... WERNER ERHARD If you can cover [a wideout] with one rather than with two or three, do the math. It means more guys... AL GOLDEN It is what it is, it is what you make it. JAMES DURBIN You can be all that you want to be. Keep dreaming and reach out to your dreams. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA Let me tell you about love, that silly word you believe is about whether you like somebody or whethe... TONI MORRISON ...you must understand that not even the Jedi know all there is to be known about the Force; no mort... MATTHEW WOODRING STOVER Your question is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes ... ALBERT EINSTEIN Take this one in my belly. He (or she) is determined to be here. I can feel the force of his being. ... REBECCA WALKER People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as... M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN Think twice or more before you start doing something for someone, it may be a good thing what you wa... NISHI DE SILVA And the thing about love," Wally said to Angel, "is that you can’t force anyone. It’s natural to... JOHN IRVING Our minds can work for us or against us at any given moment. We can learn to accept and live with th... RICHARD CARLSON Well, I think our president is an idiot and I think that he's a puppet. I think most people will agr... EDSEL DOPE There are two ways to go about it. You can take a compass and draw a perfect circle and make two per... HARVEY BALL Everyone has a gift. It's up to you to decide what you do with it. ANTHONY T. HINCKS The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me is more im... CHARLES SWINDOLL What matters is the one thing I do know for certain: God is with me. CRAIG GROESCHEL What's the one thing you can do this week that will make a huge difference in your professional life... DEBRA LUND In this world, if you raise objections saying, ‘my mother-in-law harasses me. My father-in-law har... DADA BHAGWAN I do not like a high-organized church. I think that as soon as the congregation reaches a level of o... CHARLES M. SCHULZ A beam or pillar can be used to batter down a city wall, but it is no good for stopping up a little ... ZHUANGZI this is something that can be resolved. We live in a government of checks and balances and there are... ENRIQUE MORENO There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shak... WILLIAM GOLDMAN Being with a friend in great pain is not easy. It makes us uncomfortable. We do not know what to do ... HENRI J.M. NOUWEN 28. Feelings are neither right nor wrong. It's what you do with them that causes the problems. JAMES C. DOBSON I think the plasticity of the novel is its greatest challenge. There are no rules; there is no neces... SUE MILLER Learn, relearn and outlearn. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA Look to your right... It is the path back home. If you choose, you can take it. It is safe, easy, an... WESLEY CHU It's one of the terrors of old age that your body is not your friend. Or to be out on the street... ISRAEL HOROVITZ 37. It is better to be single and unhappy than unhappily married. JAMES C. DOBSON 6 Ways To Give Your Mind A Break: 1. Stop stressing 2. Stop worrying 3. Give re... GERMANY KENT There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and ther... MARTHA GRAHAM It ends or it doesn't. That’s what you say. That’s how you get through it. The tu... CAITLYN SIEHL A closed-ended question, however, is one which could be answered with a one-word answer or a simple ... SUSAN C. YOUNG There is a thing called knowledge of the world, which people do not have until they are middle-aged.... T.H. WHITE There really is no shortcut just because you have a name, or you have some kind of access or some wa... DAYMOND JOHN Here is the tragedy: when you are the victim of depression, not only do you feel utterly helpless an... GILES ANDREAE When I die it will be game over,... but I know one life is short, to be selfish is not the best deci... DEYTH BANGER I'm a natural clown, I suppose, in writing, and one has to accept that; I can't do anything ... ANTHONY BURGESS This is how it needs to be in life. Solomon also wrote these words in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV) "Two... KIRK COUSINS The path of compassion does not obligate you to love people regardless of how they act or who they a... SANAYA ROMAN Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters. JEFFREY FRY If you want to impress someone, simply make up a vocation and preface it with the words “molecular... CLIFFORD COHEN Love is not selective, just as the light of the sun is not selective. It does not make one person sp... ECKHART TOLLE Feast of All Souls Do you think the work God gives us to do is never easy? Jesus says His yoke is... GEORGE MACDONALD One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. I... LUCY LARCOM To date or not to date that is the question. It's almost as important as Shakespeare's to be... AL GOLDSTEIN Reach out and help others. If you have the power to make someone happy, do it. Be a vessel, be the c... GERMANY KENT A farm is a manipulative creature. There is no such thing as finished. Work comes in a stream and... KRISTIN KIMBALL If you accept a democratic system, this means that you are prepared to put up with those of its work... GEORGE F. KENNAN The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely th... JOHN STUART MILL It is a different way to try to teach people that Special Olympic athletes and people with disabilit... LAURA GREMELSBACKER Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, money, ci... CHARLES R. SWINDOLL There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into actio... MARTHA GRAHAM Inasmuch as you cannot predict if and when you will be disappointed, once it happens you have only t... CARLOS WALLACE Body acceptance means, as much as possible, approving of and loving your body, despite its “imperf... GOLDA PORETSKY Your children should not have to act appropriately so that you can feel like a valuable person. It i... JEFF VANVONDEREN The most attractive thing about you should have less to do with your face or body and more to do wit... GERMANY KENT I think I just said it, but I think it’s worth repeating. They gave me hope that there is good in ... ROBERT UTTARO Do you know how many ways love can hit you? So it makes you happy, or miserable? It makes you sick i... NORA ROBERTS Man can only be certain about the present moment. But is that quite true either? Can he really know ... MILAN KUNDERA There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual walk wit... BROTHER LAWRENCE I love the fact that art allows you the freedom to be able to do what you want with no real constrai... JACQUELYN SINGER If you have to boast about what you do for a living to attract attention, attraction or approval, th... DONNA LYNN HOPE
More Elizabeth Gilbert
The continent did not appeal: France was filled with irritating people; Spain was corrupt and unstab... ELIZABETH GILBERT People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each other’s personalities. Who wouldn... ELIZABETH GILBERT You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. T... ELIZABETH GILBERT In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustai... ELIZABETH GILBERT The act of quiet nighttime talking, illustrates for me more than anything else the curious alchemy o... ELIZABETH GILBERT You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta ... ELIZABETH GILBERT To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border o... ELIZABETH GILBERT Someday you're gonna look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You'll ... 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ELIZABETH GILBERT And we have a little herb garden, which survived the winter thanks to global warming. It makes me fe... ELIZABETH GILBERT I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument a... ELIZABETH GILBERT What time has ever been a simple time for those who are living it? ELIZABETH GILBERT In the modern industrialized Western world, where I come from, the person whom you choose to marry i... ELIZABETH GILBERT In the end, it seems to me that forgiveness may be the only realistic antidote we are offered in lov... ELIZABETH GILBERT Every intimacy carries secreted somewhere below its initial lovely surfaces, the ever-coiled makings... ELIZABETH GILBERT I do forget sometimes how much it means for certain men—for certain people—to be able to provide... ELIZABETH GILBERT My restlessness makes me a far better day-to-day traveler than he will ever be. I am infinitely curi... ELIZABETH GILBERT Because I know something that you don't know. 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ELIZABETH GILBERT Real, sane, mature love—the kind that pays the mortgage year after year and picks up the kids afte... ELIZABETH GILBERT The problem, simply put, is that we cannot choose everything simultaneously. So we live in danger of... ELIZABETH GILBERT You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on thei... ELIZABETH GILBERT Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. ELIZABETH GILBERT But at some point you have to make peace with what you were given and if God wanted me to be a shy g... ELIZABETH GILBERT Creativity is a crushing chore and a glorious mystery. The work wants to be made, and it wants to be... ELIZABETH GILBERT I also get that we women in particular must work very hard to keep our fantasies as clearly and clea... ELIZABETH GILBERT There was no better path to autonomy for an ambitious young businesswoman than to be married off to ... ELIZABETH GILBERT I was struck - not for the first time in my years of travel - by how isolating contemporary American... ELIZABETH GILBERT Now that young girls like my twelve-year-old friend Mai are being exposed to modern Western women li... ELIZABETH GILBERT All too often, those of us who choose to remain childless are accused of being somehow unwomanly or ... ELIZABETH GILBERT The Buddha taught that most problems - if only you give them enough time and space - will eventually... ELIZABETH GILBERT ceremony is essential to humans: It's a circle that we draw around important events to separate the ... ELIZABETH GILBERT Psychologists suggest that we must reach back at least three generations to look for clues whenever ... ELIZABETH GILBERT The philosopher Odo Marquard has noted a correlation in the German language between the word zwei, w... ELIZABETH GILBERT I equal parts loved him and could not stand him. I couldn't wake him to share in my distress. ELIZABETH GILBERT You have no idea how strong my love is! ELIZABETH GILBERT Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water. ELIZABETH GILBERT Vitamin E, get much sleep, drink much water, travel to a place far away...meditate and teach your he... ELIZABETH GILBERT The child is taught form earliest consciousness that she has these four brothers with her in the wor... ELIZABETH GILBERT Dessutom kunde jag inte glömma vad min syster en gång hade sagt till mig medan hon ammade: ''Att s... ELIZABETH GILBERT Why are you studying Italian? So that - just in case Italy ever invades Ethiopia again, and is actua... ELIZABETH GILBERT I filled the song with everything I wished I could teach him about life. I tried to reassure him wit... ELIZABETH GILBERT Go back to bed so that, when the tempest comes, you'll be strong enough to deal with it. And the tem... ELIZABETH GILBERT I am so consumed by wonder at their bravery. 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ELIZABETH GILBERT Here's the thing: the unit of reverence in Europe is the family, which is why a child born today... ELIZABETH GILBERT I was a bartender for a long time, so I know how to make drinks, but I'm more likely to offer th... ELIZABETH GILBERT Oh, I just want what we all want: a comfortable couch, a nice beverage, a weekend of no distractions... ELIZABETH GILBERT I know this simple fact to be true, for I myself have abandoned people who did not want me to go, an... ELIZABETH GILBERT My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. I can see her... ELIZABETH GILBERT Desiring another person is perhaps the most risky endeavor of all. As soon as you want somebody—re... ELIZABETH GILBERT As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff is bad for you. ELIZABETH GILBERT My writing practice taught me the important thing is steadfastness. It's not necessarily discipl... ELIZABETH GILBERT There were times, especially when I was traveling for 'Eat, Pray, Love,' when, I swear to Go... ELIZABETH GILBERT Absolute certainty is not something I strive for anymore. I've learned the hard way that destiny... ELIZABETH GILBERT You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings. ELIZABETH GILBERT I am a better person when I have less on my plate. ELIZABETH GILBERT People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate i... ELIZABETH GILBERT Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect ... ELIZABETH GILBERT I think it's wonderful when a love story begins with a great deal of romance and affection, pass... ELIZABETH GILBERT I consider a good dinner party at our house to be where people drink and eat more than they're m... ELIZABETH GILBERT But he [Depression] just gives me that dark smile, settles into my favorite chair, puts his feet on ... ELIZABETH GILBERT They flank me - depression on my left, loneliness on my right. They don't need to show their badges.... ELIZABETH GILBERT We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at ... ELIZABETH GILBERT When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For th... ELIZABETH GILBERT Parla come magni,' It means, 'Speak the way you eat,' or in my personal translation: 'Say it like yo... ELIZABETH GILBERT Listen - of course money changes everything, but so does sunlight, and so does food: These are power... ELIZABETH GILBERT My husband is not American. He was born in Brazil, where he grew up under a filthy, corrupt dictator... ELIZABETH GILBERT I used to say, 'Man, I think I'd be a really good dad. I'll be a great provider. I'm... 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ELIZABETH GILBERT Unfenced by law, the unmarried lover can quit a bad relationship at any time. But you - the legally ... ELIZABETH GILBERT Ketut, why is life all crazy like this?" I asked my medicine man the next day...So what can we do ab... ELIZABETH GILBERT My career started young and I was really ambitious, and then I had success and I hung out with peopl... ELIZABETH GILBERT Man, they got mosquitoes 'round this place big enough to rape a chicken. ELIZABETH GILBERT You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something ... ELIZABETH GILBERT I have my own set of survival techniques. I am patient. I know how to pack light. But my one might t... ELIZABETH GILBERT I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in... ELIZABETH GILBERT God dwells within you, as you. ELIZABETH GILBERT Look for God, suggests my Guru. Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water. ELIZABETH GILBERT Dear me, how I love a library. ELIZABETH GILBERT That’s the thing about a human life-there’s no control group, no way to ever know how any of us ... ELIZABETH GILBERT There's a reason we refer to "leaps of faith" - because the decision to consent to any notion of div... ELIZABETH GILBERT Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advanc... ELIZABETH GILBERT I think sometimes we look at other people's marriages and we think they must always be so happy ... ELIZABETH GILBERT In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic e... ELIZABETH GILBERT يعتقد المرء أن توأم الروح هو الشخص الأنسب له ، وهذا ماي�... ELIZABETH GILBERT Still it is true that many same-sex couples want nothing more than to join society as fully integrat... ELIZABETH GILBERT There's no trouble in this world so serious that it can't be cured with a hot bath, a glass of whisk... ELIZABETH GILBERT Nothing in the last few years has dazzled me more than Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall,' whic... ELIZABETH GILBERT I was suffering the easily foreseeable consequences. Addiction is the hallmark of every infatuation-... ELIZABETH GILBERT [Saint Anthony] said, in his solitude, he sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and o... ELIZABETH GILBERT I think it's unfortunate that there exists only one path in America to complete social legitimac... ELIZABETH GILBERT Part of the elasticity that you need, in order to continue to try to create, is the foregone conclus... ELIZABETH GILBERT stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be... ELIZABETH GILBERT He showed me a sketch he'd drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standin... ELIZABETH GILBERT The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things th... ELIZABETH GILBERT The ingredients of both darkness and light are equally present in all of us,...The madness of this p... ELIZABETH GILBERT You have the opposite of poker face. You have like.. miniature golf face. ELIZABETH GILBERT Moreover, I have boundary issues with men. Or maybe that’s not fair to say. To have issues with bo... ELIZABETH GILBERT Yet what keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, ... ELIZABETH GILBERT He lived in sight of both worlds, but he looked toward the unknown. And he was a scholar.... You can... ELIZABETH GILBERT The Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what I represent, w... ELIZABETH GILBERT One year, Alma bought Prudence- who liked to draw flowers (beautifully, though not 'accurately')- a ... ELIZABETH GILBERT Let me ask you something, in all the years that you have...undressed in front of a gentleman has he ... ELIZABETH GILBERT Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely express... ELIZABETH GILBERT What worked yesterday doesn't always work today. ELIZABETH GILBERT This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe r... ELIZABETH GILBERT In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back people in this world who sustain ou... ELIZABETH GILBERT Alma had grown as tall as a man by now, with broad shoulders. ... This need not have necessarily pre... ELIZABETH GILBERT We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal ... ELIZABETH GILBERT Pardon me, sir," Prudence said, directing her words and her placid gaze precisely at Professor Peck,... ELIZABETH GILBERT There’s this human capacity for joy and endurance, even when things are at their worst. A joy that... ELIZABETH GILBERT When it comes to developing a worldview, we tend to face this false division: Either you are a reali... ELIZABETH GILBERT People tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will descend like fine weath... ELIZABETH GILBERT I push every day against forces that say you have to go faster, be more effective, be more productiv... ELIZABETH GILBERT This food won't be wasted; after the offering ceremony, Balinese families are always allowed to eat ... ELIZABETH GILBERT But doesn't that make sense? That the infinite would be, indeed... infinite? That even the most holy... ELIZABETH GILBERT I got to tell you, I think (deifying artists) was a huge error. You know, I think that allowing some... ELIZABETH GILBERT I will tell you why we have these extraordinary minds and souls, Miss Whittaker," he continued, as t... ELIZABETH GILBERT The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted ... ELIZABETH GILBERT Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot g... ELIZABETH GILBERT