Elizabeth Gilbert's Blog, page 7

LET'S TALK ABOUT GIVING.

Dear Ones —

I am blessed. I am over-blessed. I am beyond blessed. There are not enough fingers in the world upon which I could count my blessings. If you ever hear me complaining about anything in my life (ANYTHING at all) please fucking slap me.

Even before I was lucky enough to become financially successful, I was already over-blessed by life. Just the mere fact that I was born physically healthy is already enough to put me high on the global scale of LUCKY. To have grown up safe in a world of danger is another outrageous stroke of luck. But if you add to that all the love and friendship that I have known, and the education I was allowed to receive, and my political freedom, and the creativity I have been allowed to explore…well, like I said: over-blessed.

And so I try to give back.

I know that a lot of us try to give back, in so many ways.

Giving is a practice — an exercise of the soul — that can only be made stronger by more giving.

I remember once I commented to somebody how impressed I was with Oprah Winfrey's extraordinary generosity, and the person scoffed, and said, "Well, I could be generous, too, if I was a billionaire!"

That is a person who does not understand the meaning of the word "generous".

Generosity is a state of being. It is question of your spirit, not a question of your bank account. You're either a generous person, or you aren't. Some of the most generous people I've ever met were incredibly poor (at least financially — not in spirit.) Some of the richest people I've ever met were not generous in the least — in fact, they clutch to their resources in constant terror of scarcity.

I wanted to say to that person: "If you're waiting to become a billionaire before you become generous, I think you're missing the point."

But it's tricky, isn't it? I mean — it's hard to know where to put your generosity. The needs of the world are bottomless, and our resources are not bottomless, so sometimes it seems overwhelming. To give to one is not to give to another, and this can be heartbreaking.

Also, of course, you are almost certain to be criticized for how you give, or to whom — because the critics who walk among us are always so difficult to please. When Oprah started a school in Africa, she was attacked for not helping out closer to home. On the other hand, when Mark Zuckerberg tried to bail out the troubled school system of Newark, NJ, he was critifized for not thinking more globally. Even as Bill Gates is trying to find a cure for the worldwide Malaria epidemic, he is criticized for not helping the homeless of Seattle. When a woman in my own hometown started a club this year to help local teenage girls face down the problem of low self-esteem, she was criticized for not also helping boys.

If you give publicly, you are accused of making a show of yourself.

If you give privately, you are accused of not providing a good example to others.

What can you do?

YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN.

You do what stirs your heart, and what feels right to your soul.

No matter what our resources may be, I know that ALL OF US think about these questions:

What can I afford to give?

How can I share what I have?

Is it better to offer my time, or or money?

Local or global?

Environmental or social?

Animals or people?

The arts or education?

Children or the aged or women in need?

Refugees or homelessness?

Give it all to one organization, or spread it around?

Help your family, or help out strangers?

After years of thinking it over, and trying different techniques, here what I have settled on…which is the best I can do for now.

I divide my giving into these six categories:

International
National
Regional
Local
Intimate
Whimsical

I'll start from the bottom up on the list, to explain!

1) Whimsical: In all our worrying about the deep and dire problems of the world, we must not only focus on darkness and evil, or it will make us feel sick and defeated. Always leave a little room for support of the Whimsical, in defense of beauty and the humanities — for if there is not a bit of room in our imagination for whimsy, what is the point of life? For me, this year, that means supporting the restoration project of The Woodlands (the house I based Alma's home upon, for THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS). Here's some info on what I'm doing there: http://bit.ly/1DwwAjf)

2) Intimate: This is helping out the people whom you intimately know. Friends who are going through a hard time. Somebody whose child is having an expensive operation. Somebody who is going through a divorce and starting over. The family whose breadwinner just lost her job. For me, this is the most personal kind of giving, and sometimes the most rewarding — because you see on somebody' face how much they needed the help and the love. This is not only about money, but about your time, your comfort, your friendship.

3) Local: For me, this is the question of how to best help my town. I am not a church-goer myself, but I give money to our local church, because they are so good about helping out my neighbors in need. I might not know who is struggling nearby, but the church community knows. They know exactly who needs food, and who needs help with the oil bill, so I turn it all over to them to decide what is best.

4) Regional: In my area, I am most moved by this charity: Project HOME, of Philadelphia, which works tirelessly to support the most vulnerable population of The City of Brother Love. Sister Mary Scullion, the nun who runs the organization, is one of my life's heroes. (In fact, I was able to nominate her as one of TIME magazine's Most Influential People a few years ago, which was great.) I gave Project HOME all my earnings from Oprah's Life You Want Tour this year. Here is their website: http://ift.tt/13o7JxH

5) National: Planned Parenthood. Very few causes are more important to me than women's reproductive health and safety. I supported them back when I was a broke diner waitress, and I will support them forever.

6) International: This is very hard question. In a world so big, and so full of suffering, how can I help? I give to Doctors Without Borders and The Red Cross, and other relief organizations…but most of my money goes to the beautiful gentleman in the photo below: Dr. Rick Hodes. Dr. Hodes is a spinal surgeon who went to Africa almost twenty years ago on a brief "volunteer vacation" and never left. While he was there, he met an orphan who suffered from spinal tuberculosis — an awful disease of poverty that is barely known anymore in the western world. Dr. Hodes not only performed surgery on the boy, but adopted him. (And he has since adopted — I have lost count — over a dozen other children.) He spends his life fixing the most terrible spinal deformities imaginable in one of the most impoverished places on earth. I've been lucky enough to be able to pay for many of his patients to get their operations, and be able to walk and breathe and live again. Some of these young people had 90-degree curvatures of the spine, and now they are fixed. Does it save the entire world? No. But I cannot save the entire world. But I can help somebody who has had NONE of my advantages in life be able to walk again… and as for that? Well. There are no words for what that does to my heart.

I am so lucky to have so much to give. But I used to give what I could, even before I got so lucky. My mom set that example for me, and I am grateful.

I am so curious to hear how you all have solved the question of giving, in your lives…

Who are your generosity role models?

Who taught you how to give?

What have been your greatest moments of giving?

Where do you share yourself?

And what does the practice of giving offer to you?

Sending so much love this holiday season!

Count your blessing, dear ones. Count them on all your beautiful fingers…

ONWARD,
LG

http://ift.tt/1nb2mZ0

About Rick Hodes
rickhodes.org
Rick Hodes is an American doctor who has lived and worked in Ethiopia for over 20 years. He is the Medical Director of Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a 95-year…

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

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WEEKLY HOUSEKEEPING!

Dear Ones –

First of all, big news (OK, not big news, but big news for me): I got new glasses, and I love them! I've been putting off getting an eye exam for a long time, because I've been in total denial about the state of my 46 year-old eyes, but I finally went to the eye doctor this week…and it turns out that — guess what! — I really cannot see very well!

But now I can see. I can see, and I can read, and I can write without looking like I'm entering the squinting Olympics. And I find myself complaining a bit less about how bad the light is these days in restaurants, when I'm trying to read the menu…

Seeing is nice.

Now, onto other business:

We get a lot of new people joining this Facebook page every day (thank you for joining our little community, new folks!) so once a week, I try to give everyone all the information they might want, about other places on the Internet to find me.

So let’s run down the list:

My website is http://ift.tt/1tJzIxR

You can follow me on Instagram (which I just started because some 14-year-olds told me to) at:

http://ift.tt/1tJzIO7.

You can follow me on Pinterest (that addictive crack house, whose vortex I try not to tumble down too often because it’s a gorgeous suckhole) at: Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.

FORGIVENESS…thank you!

Dear Ones -

Thank you so much for spending the week talking about forgiveness with me on this page. It's been beautiful, and I am grateful.

There is one last thing I wanted to say on the topic of forgiveness, which is this:

DON'T SKIP ANY OF THE STEPS.

To forgive somebody is a great act of courage and grace (and ultimately a gift to the self) but it also must be done carefully, and in the right moment — and only when you are ready and strong enough. This means: Only when you have appropriately processed your anger, your sorrow, your shame, and your lessons.

Be careful not to skip over any of those steps of emotional processing and healing, in your haste to "move on".

Sometimes the reason we haven't forgiven somebody is because we never actually worked on the anger, the sorrow, the shame, or the lessons. We never examined the original pain very carefully. We never talked about the incident with anyone in an honest and vulnerable manner. We never worked the pain out of us. We never allowed ourselves to heal through therapy, or recovery, or prayer, or the support of others…or by learning how to set proper boundaries, or how to take care of our wounded selves with compassion.

Instead, we just settled immediately into RESENTMENT — which is like a hard cast that we wear over a wound that was so painful and frightening (and is still so open) that we never allowed ourselves to go near the point of injury.

The hard cast of RESENTMENT keeps the wound alive, while also hiding it from us.

The poet says that forgiveness is so difficult because — in the process of forgiving — we must approach the original injury all over again, and engage with "the raw center of it".

He writes:

"To approach forgiveness is to close in on the nature of the hurt itself."

In other words, before you can free yourself from the pain, you have to go back to that pain. You must take off that protective cast of resentment, and look at the injury.

This is so difficult to do, but it must be done. This is the step that cannot be skipped. This is the work behind forgiveness, and it's hard work, but it has to be done.

That said, I beg of you not to do it alone. Find somebody to talk to, and to share your process with. Be certain that you are in a safe place, emotionally, and that you are supported. Only then, very carefully, can you peel back the protective cast of resentment, and start to work on the original injury. Only through that work can your true forgiveness begin.

As David Whyte writes:

"Forgiveness is a skill, a way of preserving clarity, sanity, and generosity in an individual life…a way of shaping the mind for a future we want for ourselves."

What is the future that you want for yourselves, Dear Ones?

I know the future I want for myself, and I believe that absolute forgiveness is the only way I will ever get there.

But I won't skip any of the steps along that path, and I hope you won't, either.

Thank you, and god bless you all for sharing this space with me.

ONWARD,
LG

ps — and thank you again to , for her guidance and wisdom on this important subject. Again, I recommend her book FORGIVENESS to anyone who needs support on this matter: Elizabeth Gilbert - The Official Website | ElizabethGilbert.com.

This.

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FORGIVENESS WEEK, continued…

Dear Ones -

All week on this page, we've been talking about forgiveness. I'm so grateful for everything you've all been sharing with me on this vastly important (and potentially life-changing) subject.

Today I want to share with you this 10 minute TED talk from journalist Megan Feldman, about the two years she spent traveling around the world, investigating the power of forgiveness — both in our personal lives, and globally.

The story she tells here of a father forgiving his son's murderer (and the two families who were healed and brought together by this act of profound grace) gives such inspiration…and challenges all of us, I think, to ask ourselves what sort of transformations are possible in our own lives and souls

I also love that she clarifies the distinction between anger (a normal and sometimes even healthy human emotion) and resentment (which is what happens when that anger HARDENS.)

Also, the ideas about blame and resentment being acts of violence against the self and others….well, this is at the very heart of all we've been discussing this week, isn't it?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

ONWARD,
LG

http://bit.ly/1uWuC1k

Forgiveness in an unforgiving world | Megan Feldman | TEDxBoulder

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. We have to learn to forgive if we are to heal the planet. Megan Fel…

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FORGIVENESS, continued…

Dear Ones -

Thank you so much for everything you're sharing this week with me on the subject of forgiveness.

For those of you who are just tuning in, I'm dedicating my Facebook page this week to FORGIVENESS. I just finished 's six-week e-course on Forgiveness, and it's been pretty revolutionary for me, and I want to try to share what I've learned…and to learn more!

Here's a note that I wrote to myself the other day, after doing some soul-searching about the most painful and difficult kind of forgiveness of all — self-forgiveness.

If you are like me (and I'm going to guess you are, if you are here) then you carry around a giant pile of shame about all your failings, shortcomings, mistakes and perceived sins.

I always knew that I had a problem with self-forgiveness. I knew that I've always had trouble letting myself off the hook, and that sometimes I am unable to drop the knife that I've been holding to my own throat in self-punishment. I felt that I've made a lot of progress on that over the years, and I felt like I understood the origins of my own self-abuse.

But I was amazed to find — while doing my forgiveness work — that so much of the anger and sadness and frustration that I feel toward OTHER PEOPLE is actually tangled up in anger at MYSELF.

Let me explain: As I dissected some of my lasting grudges and resentments toward other people, the story always came back to me. I realized that (deep down) I blamed myself more than I blamed them. I might be angry at someone else for taking advantage of me, for instance, but I was FURIOUS at myself — for allowing myself to be taken advantage of.

And my fury at myself was often greater, deeper, and more toxic than my anger at the other person. Because that person might be an asshole, sure…but *I* was an IDIOT. Because I was the stupid, blind fool who had allowed it to happen.

Here is the mantra of the person who cannot forgive herself:

"You should have known better, you should have known better, you should have known better…"

And what was I furious at myself about? Every single time?

I WAS FURIOUS AT MYSELF FOR NOT KNOWING SOMETHING SOONER THAN I ACTUALLY KNEW IT.

But how can you abuse yourself for not having known something before you knew it? That's so unfair to yourself.

Think of it this way: Imagine that you are in a classroom, on the very first day of school, and you are about to begin studying French, for the very first time in your life. And imagine if the teacher walked into the room and immediately started screaming at you for not being able to speak French yet.

That would be crazy, right?

Because: How could you? How could you know French, before you learned French?

How could you know any of your life's most important lessons, before you learned them?

This may sound almost insanely simplistic, but here goes: YOU CANNOT KNOW SOMETHING BEFORE YOU KNOW IT.

The question of what you should have known (or should have done, or should have stopped, or should have seen coming)…well, this is all just cruelty against a more innocent version of your beautiful, evolving self.

We learn what we learn when we learn it…and not a moment before.

Some of these lessons take a long time to learn — because of your upbringing, your blind spots, your karma, your destiny, your delusions…whatever.

But life will keep trying to teach you, until you finally figure it out. And eventually you will figure it out.

The person who you are today must forgive your younger self for what she could not possibly have known yet at the time. It wasn't because she was stupid, or evil, or terrible…she had simply not taken that class yet.

We are all just students in this classroom. We are all beginners.

Embrace the lessons when you finally learn them, forgive yourself for what you did not know earlier, and move forward in grace and peace and self-compassion.

Here's what I've found: Once I start to forgive myself, it becomes curiously easy to forgive other people. Because I can see that they are just students, too. (They do not know what they cannot yet know.)

So once more I will say it: Drop the knife that you are holding to your own neck.

It is time to set yourself free — and in doing so, you will free others, as well.

ONWARD,
LG

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Dear Ones –

Should we keep talking about forgiveness today?

Let's keep talking about forgiveness.

Thank you all so much for your comments and questions and wisdom that you shared yesterday on this bottomlessly important subject.

As many of you know, I just finished taking 's six-week e-course on FORGIVENESS (some soul-work that I very much needed to for my life) and I'm still processing all that I learned.

What I want to talk about today is perhaps the most radical lesson for me of the whole course, which was about letting go of your judgments and your beliefs about that past — and how letting go of your judgments and your beliefs can open up your heart to the grace of forgiveness.

This is a HARD ONE, you guys.

My judgments and my beliefs are pretty damn solid — and never more so than when I have a strong opinion about something that somebody else has done wrong.

And if somebody else has done something wrong to ME?

Oh baby, watch out.

Because that wrong-doing will be carved into my Book of Offenses, and my Book of Offenses is made of granite. Once your name is carved in there, it is not easily erased.

I look all sweet and nice, but deep inside, I might as well be a mafia boss, for how hard I hold to my grievances.

I can justify holding onto my Book of Offenses because some of the shit that people have done to me is REALLY BAD. Inarguably bad. And, by the way, what has been done to me is nothing compared to what happens to other people in this world — because sometimes human beings are unbelievably horrible to each other. What some people have to go through in their lives is sometimes absolutely unthinkable.

Some of you shared your stories yesterday of what you have been through, and it's devastating.

People do things to each other that are not just heartbreaking, not just disappointing, but often deeply traumatizing and sometimes flat-out evil.

The world is full of wrong-doing, and it hurts us — and we are constantly cataloging our injuries and our injustices.

To hold onto that wrong-doing forever, though, is to never forgive.

On one hand, why should you ever let go of it, when what was done to you was so terrible?

But the problem is this — over the years, you can become broken and sick from carrying around your Book of Offenses forever on your back. Your spine and your soul can be crushed beneath that heavy granite slab, with its names carved so deep. You get so bent and twisted beneath that unforgiveness that you cannot even lift your face to the sky anymore. Then what has your life become? How can you fly? How can you ever be free?

A lot of the reason we hold onto our pain (and our suffering, and our anger, and our shame, and our resentment, and our desire for revenge) is because we believe that what happened SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. We cannot shake our indignation that God let it happen, that our families let it happen, that our lovers let it happen, that our neighbors let it happen, that we ourselves let it happen — whatever "it" may be.

But it happened.

That's the reality. It happened.

And, as Iyanla reminded us again and again in this course, "Any time you fight against reality, you will suffer."

To continue to insist forever that "THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME!" is to fight forever against reality. And you will only suffer in that fight, because you cannot win that fight. Reality will always win that fight. You can keep fighting against that reality till the end of time, and you will become obsessed, depressed, angry, bitter — but the reality of what happened will never change.

It happened. The horrible thing happened.

Why did it happen?

Why did you have to suffer?

I DON'T KNOW. Nobody knows. You may never know. And as my friend Pastor reminds us: "Be very suspicious of anyone who tells you that they DO know why you had to suffer."

Someday you might see how that horrible event formed you into the person that you needed to become…or maybe you won't. Maybe it will never make sense. What if never makes sense?

Nonetheless, it still happened.

And the most radical thing I learned from Iyanla during the whole forgiveness course was this: "You don't have to know what anything means."

It was such a simple statement, but it blew my mind. I ALWAYS want to know what everything means! I need answers. I need action. I need resolution. In the story that I am constantly telling in my own mind about my own life, I am always trying to set the world into logical moral order. I try to tidy up the chaos, because I want to control the disorder that I see around me. I want to change wrong-doing to right-doing. I want everything to be fixed.

And there's nothing that I want to fix more than the past.

But the past cannot be fixed. What happened happened, and you don't need to know WHY it happened.

Can you forgive this world for not making sense? If you could forgive the world for not making sense, would that help you to drop the granite Book of Offenses that you have been carrying around on your own back for so long? Would that set you free?

I feel like something shifted in me when Iyanla said, "You don't have to know what anything means."

Like: maybe I could let some things go.

"Letting things go" doesn't mean that you open yourself up again for future mistreatment. It doesn't mean that you welcome back into your life the person who abused you, who lied to you, who cheated you, or used you. It doesn't mean you condone what occurred, or that it was OK. It doesn't mean you sign up for more harm. It doesn't mean that the guilty should go unpunished. (If somebody needs to go to jail, then they really do need to go jail.) Letting things go doesn't mean you volunteer to be a victim forever.

It just means that maybe you stop saying, "THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME!"

And instead you simply say: "IT HAPPENED."

You say: It happened, and I processed it as well as I could, and I may never know why it happened, but now I am ready to move on — even if I am never apologized to, and even if I am never given justice. I am ready to let go of my judgments and beliefs about what happened — because I do not know the master plan. I will surrender to not knowing, in order to be liberated. Because all those thoughts of anger and shame and pain and indignation are doing nothing but causing me to continue suffering, when the only thing I want is to be free.

Because maybe there really IS a field out there somewhere in our collective imaginations, way out there beyond all our ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing…and maybe we ARE supposed to meet there. Maybe that's what heaven is — the place of no grievances, the place of complete and total forgiveness.

Maybe that's what all the great peace-makers have been trying to teach us, for centuries.

Maybe you can only get there by letting go.

I don't know.

I just know that I really don't want to carry around a stone of grievances on my back for the rest of time.

I am so curious to hear your thoughts, dear ones.

Thank you for sharing this space with me.

I would love to meet you all in that field of peace.

ONWARD,
LG

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Dear Ones -

So I just finished taking 's six week e-course on forgiveness.

This is something I really needed to do for my life.

Forgiveness is a tough one for me, my friends. Believe me — I hold onto grievances HARD. These six weeks have been a great gift of learning and letting go for me.

I'm going to try to share with you some of the lessons I learned this week, in hopes that they are as useful to you as they have been to me…

What I want to talk about today is the question of why to forgive at all.

There was a wonderful moment in Iyanla's course, where a man called in with this question: "My wife lied to me, and cheated on me, and left me, and destroyed our family — but I still have to pay her alimony every month, and it makes me furious. Do I have to forgive her?"

Iyanla's response: "No! Absolutely not. You definitely do not have to forgive her. You can hold onto your anger forever. It's up to you."

It's a CHOICE. Forgiveness is not a requirement; it's a choice. You can forgive somebody, or you can hold on your anger forever. That's the choice. It's entirely up to you.

But at some point, you have to ask yourself whether that anger is really serving you — and if that's the energy force that you want to base your emotional life upon forever.

What do you lose by saying, "I am ready to let this anger go?"

Does it make you weaker, to let go of your anger and righteous indignation? Or does it make you stronger?

When I look at other people who are holding onto their anger, it is so clear to me that this energy is destroying them.

When I see other people who are holding onto their righteous indignation, refusing to let it go, it's completely obvious that they are not living a life of grace.

When I look at other people who live in the past, keeping their old grievances alive forever, it's so obvious that they are only hurting themselves.

When I observe the unbelievable courage and dignity and divinity of people who have forgiven others, it makes me want to bow down at their feet, and learn how to be so brave and so good.

And when people have forgiven ME for my misdeeds, I am so grateful — because we all long to be forgiven, and we all need to be forgiven.

So I knew all that.

And yet STILL, I held onto my own lack of forgiveness.

Yet STILL — even with all the evidence that forgiveness is an act of liberation, grace, courage, humanity, and the highest possible human evolution — I STILL wanted the privilege to hold onto MY anger forever, to keep MY righteous indignation alive forever, to keep MY grievances burning forever…

In other words, I could see easily how other people's lack of forgiveness harms the world, but I could not see how my own lack of forgiveness was harming ME.

That's because I was addicted to my own storyline — addicted to how wrong that other person was, addicted to how unfair that situation was, addicted to how right I was, addicted to how hurt I was.

Then I heard Iyanla say: "Refusal to forgive is an act of violence that you commit against yourself."

The only person who is harmed by your lack of forgiveness is YOU.

When you forgive somebody, you are not saying that you approve of their behavior. You are not saying that what they did was right. You are not saying that you will ever allow them to harm you again. You are not even saying that you would welcome them back into your life (and in many cases, that's not even an option — because sometimes the people whom we most need to forgive are long dead.)

You are only saying that you will not allow your anger and your pain to control your life anymore. Because your anger and your pain are poison. Even if they are "justified", they are poisonous to your heart. And when you refuse to forgive somebody, they will control your life and hold ownership over your emotions forever — even if they are dead, or even if you haven't spoken to them for years.

Many times, we don't want to forgive somebody because we don't want to bless them. But your act of forgiveness HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. Your act of forgiveness is a gift of courage and liberation that you give to yourself. It's a blessing you offer yourself.

Because you want to be FREE.

So this is where the difficult journey toward forgiveness begins — with the idea that you deserve to be free.

Just learning that — these basic notions — I could already feel myself softening.

Because that's all I really want — to be FREE.

Throughout the week, I will keep talking about this subject.

But I wonder if some of you might share your own stories and thoughts and questions about forgiveness here today?

Let us teach each other, and learn from each other…

All my love, and ONWARD,
LG

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The other day, I heard a friend say that people tell lies about themselves only when their own truth is unacceptable to them.

I've been turning that line around and around in my head for the last week, and then I saw this…

What do you all think?

Curious how this quote strikes you…

ONWARD,
LG

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Want to be part of my Christmas Present?

Want to help restore Alma's home?

Dear Ones!

This year for Christmas, I'm going to be donating money to The Woodlands — the beautiful 18th century Philadelphia estate upon which I based the Whittaker's home, White Acre, in my novel THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS.

I love this property, and I adore the dedicated folks who maintain it. They were so generous to me while I was researching the novel — letting me roam freely all over the property, from carriage house to the old gardens, from the attic to the basement (and yes, even in "the binding closet"!).

Right now, there's a fantastic capital campaign going on to restore The Woodlands home (and Alma's carriage house!) and many folks (including me) are chipping in to help.

We've set up an Indiegogo account specifically for my readers to help out…so if you would like to be part of this, click here and join!

A few bucks from all the readers of THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS could save this irreplaceable estate.

There are rewards for participating (I especially like the "Alma's wildflower mix")

And remember: The more you donate, the more I donate!

I thank you!

Alma thanks you!

The ghosts of Henry and Beatrix Whittaker thank you!

Hanneke down there in the basement in her caged room (an actual feature of the estate) thanks you!

And The Woodlands thank you!

ONWARD,
LG

ps – Oh, one other thing! A number of book groups in the Philadelphia area have been going on field trips to The Woodlands, to explore Alma's home and carriage house. If you live in the area, you should get some friends together and go! The staff is so helpful and friendly, and it's such a cool day trip.

http://bit.ly/1DwwAjf

Restore White Acre
www.indiegogo.com
Help Elizabeth Gilbert restore the estate that inspired her latest novel.

via Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook Wall

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