I spent yesterday finishing Eat Pray Love. If you have not read it, you should. It is one of the best books on spirituality and how to live life that I've ever read. In fact, it might be one of the best books I've ever read, period. Very funny and insightful. (The first sentence of the book annoyed me, because it made me thought the book was going to be about romance, but once I got into the first paragraph I was hooked.)
I read it in three days and then went into a slight depression that it was over. Now I am inspired to go on a spiritual journey. I also want to get my palm read.
Yesterday after I finished the book I began a project I've been meaning to start all summer: going though my journals. I have journals from about 1999 through last month stacked up in my closet, and I've been wanting to read them and put them in chronological order. I got through 2004 yesterday. (2005, though, is the year I started writing every day, so I am only about 1/3 of the way through.)
Rereading, I realized how much I worry! I worry about traveling, as most of you already know, but I also worry about all these small, insignificant things. Furthermore, I feel too much guilt. Guilt and worry are really kinds of fear, I think. I'd like to purge my life of all types of fear.
Yesterday I even felt guilty about watching Top Chef. When I thought about it, I realized that it was because I was afraid that I should be doing something else.
This brings me to the subject of guilty pleasures. Why are they guilty pleasures? Can't they just be pleasures? I'm not talking about something like, oh, cheating on a partner or stealing, but just something you do that doesn't hurt anyone, and brings you pleasure, but for some reason also brings you guilt.
My guilty pleasures are things like watching TV during the day, and eating Doritos for lunch. At least those are the ones from yesterday.
So the question is a task-- engage in a guilty pleasure today, but do it without the guilt.
6 comments:
Fun! I'm thinking about what mine will be. I think I am going to buy some new (i.e., full-price) books for myself. I almost never do this--I buy new books to give as gifts, but I buy all my books for myself used. This is true for clothes as well. Last weekend I went shopping for B's birthday present and I bought myself a shirt as well. It was on sale for $20, but I still felt a bit guilty spending that much on something that I hadn't planned to buy.
Also, you should not feel guilty for watching Top Chef. Top Chef is awesome. And it is on Bravo, which makes it classy. I am really looking forward to having cable after the move so I can start watching it. I also watched Big Brother all three times it came on last week, which I feel not exactly guilty, but certainly somewhat sheepish, about.
I've been doing lots of indulging lately, since I've decided that it's no longer my job to pay for my husband's stuff. Last week, I bought three new shirts. I felt a little guilty, like I should have given him the money for machines. This is my particular madness.
Today, I'm going to eat a store-bought lunch. We do it every Friday at work, and it's the best thing, ever. We're ordering Chinese and then getting milkshakes. Fuck it all.
yesterday i took the afternoon off and went to Stampede with my friend V. (who has a fantastic blog, btw, http://doctoraldiva.blogspot.com/) and we rode the ferris wheel and the merry go round and this thing that looks like a ski lift only you just float above everybody on the groud. We looked at piglets (so cute! Seeing farm animals reminds me why i am vegetarian...are there such thing as wild cows anywhere in the world??) and then went to the free concert, which was LIVE as in 'lightening crashes.' I hated the band in high school and i hate it more now that i realize how overtly christian it is, but i liked going and not working for a whole afternoon and hanging out with one of the best people i know.
not working is my VERY guilty pleasure. smoking 1 ciggarette a day is my other one. I combat this one by doing lots of cardio and making myself feel bad. whee!
I LOVE the book. i reading it right now. i started recently and have just finished the chapter on italy. how appropriate is your "task" to indulge in something that will bring you pleasure with no guilt a la carte! i will get in touch when i finish the book.
my pleasure for the day was chips and salsa for breakfast!
Yea! How fun. I had a chocolate croissant, which I would describe in detail but I am out of time.
I loved the book, too, and it seems like one of those books that you can recommend to everyone. My guilty pleasure...watching bad television, sure. Eating hot fudge sauce while cold directly from the jar. Letting Lucy sleep on the bed for a few hours in the morning so I can sleep in.
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