The author of the book that inspired the Julia Roberts movie, and made us all contract a bad case of wanderlust, Elizabeth Gilbert, has announced her relationship with fellow writer, Rayya Elias.
It was not necessarily a case of magically finding that she was attracted to another female, but rather, figuring out that “she’s my best friend, yes, but it’s always been bigger than that. She’s my role model, my traveling companion, my most reliable source of light, my fortitude, my most trusted confidante. In short, she is my PERSON.”
The fact that she has found love at this stage in her life provides hope for others who may have reservations that it may be too late for them; stories of youth coming out is more and more commonplace these days, but the concept of the ‘fuddy duddy’ generation is able to be beaten back.
As Gilbert says, “for reasons of my own integrity and sanity, I need to be able to walk into any room in the world with Rayya on my arm, feeling relaxed enough to stand comfortably in simple openness about who we actually are to each other.”
It sounds so simple: to be true with yourself, and to be open enough to admit it; but as Gilbert has written in her Facebook post, it never is.
