Eat Pray Love

Last night I went with my mother and a dear family friend (also known as my second mother) to watch Eat Pray Love.  I was very hesitant to support this movie financially.  I already purchased the book, and really feel like it sends the wrong message to people unhappy in their marriages.  This film glamorized leaving your husband and running away for a year.  I can’t throw a stone, because I’ve never been married… and I’ve spent the last 7 years traveling, or wishing I was traveling, but I can say that I ever did it because I was running from anything.  I feel whole when I am on my own, overcoming challenges, experiencing and exploring.  I love immersing myself in culture and learning to appreciate new things.  That’s all beside the point.  This movie was highly entertaining, and I don’t regret seeing it.  I love Julia Roberts and James Franco… I think it was well put together, and I loved that each place she went corresponded with a time in my life.

Italy, she meets a friend from Sweden and they become inseparable.  In Italy, I met one of my VERY best friends Hanne from Norway.  This girl has truly changed my life, and I am so fortunate to have her as a friend.  If or when I get married some day, I’m flying her over to be a bridesmaid.  I literally love this girl with all my heart, though I have not seen her in a year.  She just sent me a postcard from Turkey that made me smile so big my cheeks hurt.

While Liz was in Bali, I was reminded of my trip to Southeast Asia. She hangs out with monkeys and even says Terima Kasih which in Bahasa (spoken in Malaysia) is thank you. Not that I met a hunk and fell in love in Malaysia, but I did have so many eye opening experiences, that I really related to her journey.

As for India, it reminds me of the places I WANT to go.  India, Turkey, and Argentina are the next 3 on my bucket list.  Fortunately, I am going on a father/daughter excursion to Argentina for a few weeks this November… then I’ll have to add another to the list.  Most likely the entire African continent and/or Antarctica.

I have been so fortunate to travel to 25 countries thus far, and I have a feeling my addiction to travel is going to lead me to the poor house, but experiencing the world and what it has to offer is very enlightening.

If there is somewhere you want to go, go do it.  Life is too short to worry about what it costs, because what you gain from exploration is priceless.  Who knows, with the Westernization of the East (the beast of outsourcing), these beautiful places could be so modernized in the next 10 years you may not have a chance to see some of the most amazing and culturally rich places on the planet.