Ate, Prayed, Loved

 Looking for some movie to watch this evening, I came across “Eat, Pray, Love.” And I had a poignant moment.  I had seen it before, even read the book.  Ok my masculinity could be quested at this point, for like, on a one to ten scale of “Chick Flicks” it rates a 10 and I said I not only saw the movie but read the book, so let me explain…..

 It was the winter of 2007 and I was going on a yoga vacation to Mexico which I had done for a few years before.  It was a welcome retreat from the cold winter of Virginia to the warm sun of Mexico.  I had brought a couple of books with me but soon finished them.  It was the custom of the retreat that you would bring a book or two and if you finished them you would trade with another person with for the book they finished.  Thus, I got Eat, Pray, Love. The trader told me the story, a love story, not something I would choose on my own, but what the heck, it was something to read. 

  For those of you unfamiliar with the story, a recently divorced woman takes a journey to rediscover herself after the divorce. Eat takes place in Italy, Pray takes place in India and Love takes place in Bali.  I had been divorced for a number of years before reading the story but even still, it touched something in me, something deeply rooted.

    In some strange parallel fashion my journey is like, but unlike the book.  I traveled to Bali first, a most wonderful journey but did not find love.  I just recently returned from the Tuscany area of Italy, a land one associates with wonderful food, and I lost six pounds. 

  And then there is India, I have not yet visited.  I am reluctant to go, not finding love in Bali, not finding eat in Italy, what will I find in India?  What would it mean to not find, or find “Pray”?   “Pray”, one’s connection to the divine.  Would I find or not find it in India?  Perhaps it doesn’t matter, for I may have already found the divine and it is inside of me.

Larry Mixson, 09-05-2019