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Saturday, December 26, 2015

Decorate Yourself

 
An excerpt from Big Magic...
 
.... I have a neighbour who gets tattoos all the time.
Her name is Eileen. She acquires new tattoos the way I might acquire a new pair of cheap earrings - just for the heck of it, just on a whim. She wakes up some mornings in a funk and announces, "I think I'll go get a new tattoo today." If you ask Eileen what kind of tattoo she's planning on getting, she'll say, "Oh, I dunno. I'll figure it out when I get to the tattoo shop. Or I'll let the artist surprise me."
 
Now, this woman is not a teenager with impulse-control issues. She's a grown woman, with adult children, who runs a successful business. She's also very cool, uniquely gorgeous, and one of the most free spirits I've ever met. When I asked her once how she could allow her body to be marked up so casually with permanent ink, she said, "Oh, but you misunderstood! It's not permanent. It's just temporary."
 
Confused, I asked, "you mean, all your tattoos are temporary?"
 
She smiled and said, "No, Liz. My tattoos are permanent; it's just my body that's temporary. So is yours. we're only here on earth for a short while, so I decided a long time ago that I wanted to decorate myself as playfully as I can, while I still have time."........
.....And so goes the book. 

5 comments:

  1. The book has been on my TBR list; especially since I enjoys eat pray love.
    You have further piqued my curiousity with the excerpt :)

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  2. I have read her Eat Pray Love and really enjoyed the book but this I will have to check out.
    Thanks..

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  3. I have the book but am yet to read it :) Thanks for reminding me.

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  4. I love this line...My tattoos are permanent; it's just my body that's temporary! So much in so little words...

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  5. As much as I love that phrase, 'the body that is temporary' and subscribe to it, I could never get a tattoo :D Scared witless about needles! I do like the premise of the book though and am adding it to my TBR!

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