Always grow. Grow all ways. All ways, always.

Yesterday I bought the January edition of Oprah’s magazine, which I wouldn’t normally do because I think it’s expensive for a magazine. But the reason I did was because I saw in the top right corner the words ‘Eat, Pray, Love…and Then What? An exclusive excerpt from Elizabeth Gilbert’s inspiring new book’. And BOY was I excited. I have been waiting for her next book for so long! I loved her last book; it really spoke to me and opened me up to an idea of what God can be that I was comfortable with. So I’ve been very eager to hear about her thoughts of marriage and how her and her husband are making theirs work.


When I read the excerpt there were two ideas that really stood out for me the first was that she actually made an honest list of her top 5 faults, I found this inspirational! How can you possible work on improving yourself if you aren’t honest about your faults and if you haven’t faced them? Just based on my nursing background and how much we need to reflect on your practice in order to develop further, and provide better patient care. I think in order to continue to grow as a person, once must also reflect upon themselves and their life. Always grow. Grow all ways. Always, all ways. This is something I feel I should do too. Then she shared it with her then fiancée, which I think was brave and open. What a great way to start a marriage, with a conversation about who you are, both the good and the bad, and not to hide anything. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a relationship that is beyond the point of deal breakers?

The second point in the excerpt that really struck me and actually made me sit back and think WHOA. It’s so simple, yet I’ve NEVER thought of a relationship being like that before! What a great way to clearly look at a person and know whether they are a match for you or not. In the book it states that Elizabeth asked her husband Felipe how he could still love her after sharing her list of faults with him. To which he explained that anyone can fall in love with the best parts of someone, it’s by looking at the not-so-great parts of a person that you see whether those flaws are something you can ‘work with’. I think when we don’t do this we can easily fall into the habit of creating a partner in your head that only has these great qualities, rather than actually seeing them as a whole and accepting that. A great quote from the book states that “there is hardly a more gracious gift that we can offer somebody than to accept them fully, to love them almost despite themselves”. After all, nobody’s perfect! God knows I’m a prime example of what a hot mess can look like :)

I hope to reflect upon myself and make a list of my faults in order to learn from it to improve myself. And I want to share that list with Mike so we can communicate about it and so he can encourage me too. I also want to be able to truly reflect and put into organized thought why I love Mike, I’d like to have a better answer than ‘I do because you’re wonderful’. So that’s what I’ll be working on, along with studying for my exam that I have tomorrow night – wish me luck!

Thought I'd add some wintery photos, just for fun! In case anyone doesn't get to see this out their back door.