Spare Parts

We never thought we would have to say this twice in a lifetime: We lost our house in a flood. It is an awful experience the first time around. It is beyond comprehension a second time. On Tax Day - April 15 - of 2007, just eight months after we moved into our first home and eight months after I laid my mother to rest, a Nor'easter slammed through our house. As unwelcome as illness, the flood waters left four feet of water sloshing through everything we owned and all manner of destruction in its wake. In the immediate days following the colliding of rivers inside our house, we stayed like so many others, holed up in a hotel room with our pets, completely numb. When we realized we had clothes for only a couple of days, we had to shop. Instead we cried in corners of stores and went unnoticed. And so we walked out, usually without a bag in sight. Days and nights mingled, but we were lost amid emotions too dark to understand. We forgot to eat. We slept the sleep of the troubled and woke...

I finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert's latest, Committed a couple of weeks ago. When I first got the book, as detailed in a previous blog, I was beyond excited. I could not wait to dive into its crisp pages, hear the cracking of the book’s spine with the turning of pages. I couldn’t wait to immerse myself in its tale. However, I admit dishearteningly, that when I put it down at its conclusion, I was quite disappointed. Granted, as Ms. Gilbert herself said at the book signing, it is difficult, if not impossible, to recreate the magic of Eat, Pray, Love a second time around. And I don’t think I expected her to. I mean these are two completely different stories at two completely different points in her life. But still… Don’t get me wrong; Ms. Gilbert’s writings are still beautiful. They are still imbued with dripping details of exotic locations, cultures and people that only she can bring to life on paper that well. It is still fascinating to encounter people and...