Eat, Pray, Love – Available from Amazon.com

Not long ago, a group of friends and I went to hear a presentation by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love.  Since I had read the book, I was eager to hear her reflections on the year when she spent four months eating her way through Italy, four months seeking communion with the divine at an ashram in India and four months living in Bali where she met the man she eventually married.  When she finished speaking, someone in the audience asked her if she had learned anything new as a result of her experience.  She answered, “You can’t skip steps on the way to becoming your own full you.”  In other words, if you expect to become your own full you, you can’t have someone else answer your most difficult questions or collapse at someone else’s feet every time the going gets tough.  Instead, you have to confront life’s lessons head-on regardless of how difficult they may seem.  Ms. Gilbert went on to say that if you do try to take a short-cut by skipping some of the steps, you’ll eventually have to get back in line and confront those same steps again.  Once again, there are no short-cuts to becoming your own full you. – Ross Reck

• Visit RossReck.com
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert available from Amazon.com