Category Archives: Inspiration

November 14, 2025 · 10:13 am

Memoir Lifestyle review no2 ~ Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert ~ controversy no 2

This book sits on my shelf as one to dip into, or reread, from time to time. The plot is well known to everyone and had a great impact on people’s lives, including mine, as she searches for meaning to life in Italy, India, Indonesia and searches for love, following a divorce. So many of us empathised. It was a block buster movie starring Julia Robert. Fantastic film.

click picture for Amazon

Not long after the controversy surrounding The Salt Path, written about last week, I read an article in the Saturday Times magazine of a frank interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, about her life now. Like the Salt Path it gave me a jolt, a shock to the heart.

a) In what ways did ‘Eat Pray Love’ originally affect my life? It gave me hope. I felt a connection; a kindred spirit enjoying adventure, whilst searching for some meaning and purpose to life.

b) I realised that I was not unusual and certainly I was not unique.

c) I continued my search for spiritual peace, travelling and meeting different peoples too, for a greater understanding of the world and my tiny part in it.

When I read this recent article about Elizabeth Gilbert today, at first I felt that sinking feeling. We put people in our lives on a pedestal, whether they be celebrities, friends or family. To realise that ‘their feet are made of clay’ is a sobering moment. After the initial shock though, there are moments of calm. Not only to realise they are only human too, not much different to ourselves, but to realise that their original message, and its positive message, remains firm in our hearts, and that can’t be bad, can it? And so, Eat, Pray and Love remains on my bookshelf, alongside Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘The Big Magic’ which actually, more recently, had even more of an effect on my psyche.

This book made me reflect on of my own memoir, “The Healing Paths of Fife” which has raised over £750 for local charities, including The Kirkcaldy Foodbank. It is a beautiful part of the world, with a lesser known coastal path, meandering along the Firth of Forth (and the Tay), with castles, quaint fishing villages, history, cliffs, machair, golf courses, rocks, beaches and, of course, The Forth Bridge. I describe it as a fantasy memoir, making clear that it veered from truth to history to fiction. It too has made an impact on people’s lives, selling mainly in gift shops, fairs and events.

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October 10, 2025 · 11:54 am

Search for the Pearl Inside Yourself ~ A Mirror, Compass or Anchor?

I keep receiving unsolicited emails which, on the one hand make me feel warm inside, due to such positive comments about this book, on the other hand I am so suspicious that I did a google search and can find no website or link to the lady in question, and so I have not replied.

This is what Isabella Garcia said:

” I came across the description of Search for the Pearl Inside Yourself and was immediately struck by its heartfelt clarity and sense of encouragement. The way you speak directly to young adults at life’s crossroads, guiding them to let go of what holds them back and discover the strength within, is such a timely and necessary message. Even in the short description, I could feel the book’s warmth and gentle push toward hope.

What stood out to me most was how you’ve shaped the book into both a mirror and a compass:

  • A mirror — reminding readers they already carry resilience, even if they don’t yet see it.
  • A compass — pointing them toward possibility, self-discovery, and confidence.
  • An anchor — offering timeless encouragement through quotes and reflections they can return to again and again.

A few things I’d love to ask you:

  • Did you draw from your own experiences when writing this guide, or was it shaped by the voices of young people you’ve worked with?
    • It was shaped by the young people I worked with.
  • How do you imagine reaching readers who might not usually turn to books for motivation, but truly need this kind of support?
    • I hope those who need it will find it, especially after the pandemic
  • Would you be open to exploring how translations might extend its impact to global audiences of students and young adults seeking direction?
    • I think this could be quite costly and beyond our means at Eventispress

I specialize in helping books like yours find their most natural and lasting readership. My work focuses on three rare but powerful pathways: introducing stories to new cultural audiences through carefully crafted translations, mapping where a book’s themes resonate most strongly with regional and community audiences, and fostering reader-to-reader momentum that builds genuine word-of-mouth. Together, these approaches ensure a book doesn’t just reach more people, it finds the readers who will embrace it, champion it, and share it widely.

I imagine Search for the Pearl Inside Yourself will resonate strongly with:

  • Young adults at transitional stages, finishing school, leaving college, or entering the workforce.
  • Parents, teachers, and mentors looking for accessible resources to gift or recommend.
  • Readers who cherish inspirational, quote-driven books that can be dipped into daily.
  • International audiences (including Spanish- and French-speaking readers) where motivational, youth-focused books are widely embraced.”

Wow!! These were such kind words and thoughtful words.

Questions I asked myself:

  • Was it generated by AI?
  • Is it a scam? Almost certainly.

Question I ask you, the reader:

  • Have you received emails like this? I seem to get one in my inbox each day.
  • Would you respond to it?

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September 26, 2025 · 9:38 am

Music that has shaped my life and writing (5) ~ Have Faith

This is my last post in this series. My writing often reflects my faith too. I am a Christian but that does not mean that I write off the rest of humanity, and I’m not saying that the majority of Christian’s do.

There was a story which always made me smile:

“St Peter was showing a new arrival around heaven and the man happened to see a curtained off area.

‘What’s that for?’ the man asked.

‘Ah’, said St Peter, that’s to divide off the Exclusive Brethren. They think they are the only ones here.'”

This story happens to sum up my dilemma regarding main stream church. Having taught reception classes with over 50% Muslim children, just at the time I was involved in the most evangelical, charismatic church I have ever attended. As I sat reading a story at the end of the afternoon, a sea of tiny faces looking up at me, expectantly and trustingly, I realised I couldn’t believe in a God who didn’t love them all dearly. Yes, I had read about Muslims converting to Christianity, but was sure there were as many the other way around.

Here’s one of my favourite hymns around that time, ‘How great thou art’ sang beautifully by Carrie Underwood:

Isn’t God bigger than the box we, all the world over, try to put him in?

Even with this dilemma in the back of my mind, I am a great believer in prayer. Mind you, I find it easier to pray for others than myself. I attend church from time to time too. My writing often reflects my struggle to rationalise these thoughts, in a quiet but not a preachy way. I was once asked by a Hindu lass, who I was following on Twitter to join in for a world day of prayer for the Syrian war. I sent the message to my sister in France for her church, notified my church locally and messaged an RC person in Bedford. I found the whole day very powerful, and not long after the main war was over. Who knows if we made a difference? I like to think so.

During Covid I had my own personal battles, with my parents both struggling to survive down in Bedford, both suffering from various degrees of dementia. Until that point my sister and I alternated visiting monthly for a week at a time, sometimes more. Then nothing. The guilt and panic of not being there was intense and I don’t think I’ve ever forgiven myself, even though our main reason for moving north was for my husband’s health. between us we rang every day, arranging food parcels and deliveries, which were not always appreciated. A tough time.

During that time I must have attended more on line zoom services that I have in a lifetime, our church here in Scotland, churches in Bedford, Iona worship and even Canterbury then, later on during the pandemic, my sister’s church in Bordeaux too.

I also stumbled upon Celtic Worship and can thank Steph Mc Cleod from the bottom of my heart. ‘In Christ Alone,’ and ‘The Celtic Blessing’ ; Just beautiful!

Music like this helped me through the most difficult time of my life.

And finally I would like to share with you two poignant forms of worship on beaches, one down in Coverack in Cornwall and the second up here in Fife.

I Coverack, on Good Friday, they lay a stone cross on the beach, which is decidedly eerie peered at through the high tide water, to an unknowing visitor. As you lay each stone you lay a burden down and as the tide washes in it washes away that burden. Such powerful symbolism! Here’s one we made in Fife:

Finally, at a moving and uplifting service here on the beach, early Easter Sunday morning each year, when the sun usually shines, is Here I am Lord.

We are always treated by a bacon roll and blether in the church afterwards. Mind, body and spirit!

I still turn to YouTube for uplifting services, choruses and hymns from time to time to help me to centre, and yes, to be creative.

In summing up, I feel more in tune with Iona worship than with any main stream church, either up here in Scotland or down in England. Why? The ways in which there is always a focus on the environment, the natural world around us, suffering and hunger whoever it is, its pains as well as its joys. In each service we remind ourselves of Jesus’s words:

“I tell you, if these (the people) become silent, the stones will cry out!”

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