Committed Undone: A tale of love and love lost, retirement, travel and spiritual healing

by Elizabeth Lowrie

It is not a good year for Elizabeth Lowrie. Everything she is committed to is being her work, the day-to-day responsibilities of family and a commitment made to the ex.

In the process of considering whether or not to retire, Elizabeth’s world begins to fall apart when Liz Gilbert publishes Committed, the sequel to her best seller Eat, Pray, Love. In Committed, Liz and her new beau (Felipe) are described as survivors of ‘very, very bad divorces’. This is a huge shock to Elizabeth Lowrie, ‘Felipe’s’ she had always believed their split had been gracious.

In order to try and make sense of the chaos around her, Elizabeth embarks on the trip of a life time – to move ‘the energy’ to a better place and to make decisions about her future. She explores what a professional woman considers when retiring.

This is the story of Elizabeth’s journey of healing from her initial feelings of grief and betrayal to finding inner peace and compassion. It is an 18 month memoir of personal, emotional and spiritual growth as Elizabeth white water rafts down the Grand Canyon, meditates for six weeks in Brazil, and travels across Canada by train.

This story is Elizabeth’s truth.

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2014

Reviews

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book by a Buddhist author is not the sort of thing you'd normally expect me to review. However, I heard Elizabeth Lowrie speak at a writer's gathering and my ears pricked up. The kind of thing she was talking about seemed to me to be about threshold issues. Could it be, I wondered, that Buddhists suffer from threshold problems as well? That question was enough for me to buy the book and explore what it had to offer.

It starts with a number of references to various New Year celebrations. Elizabeth self-confesses that her identity is caught up in the notion of 'least harm' to others. Perhaps it is almost inevitable that her greatest trial in life is when her ex-husband and his new wife side-swipe that identity when they claim, via global publicity for a book, that Elizabeth's divorce from him was 'horrific'.

A large section of this narrative of healing is taken up with a journey of white water rafting on the Colorado River. A further section describes a retreat in a Buddhist temple in Brazil, and then the story of a trip by road and rail across Canada.

Unusual and interesting insights: Vajrasattva is the deity that embodies the purification powers of all the Buddhas. If one practises sincerely with the correct motivation, all the negativities we have accumulated in this life and previous lives can be removed. (p 178)
Drums summon guests (deities and others) to important feasts and offerings. ... To summon sentient and other beings to temple offerings, all in the congregation have purchased a round double hand drum to beat in time with the temple's large drum. (p 179f)
The Allende is an ancient German dance here interpreted as a birch forest. (p 208)

[Yvette Tsiropoulos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whatever drove me to spend $8 on this tedious, slow read? I was tempted so many times in not finishing reading but I 'trudged' on.
Lowrie came across as a whiner; judgemental; too focused on 'what would others think'. It was a vain attempt in emulating Elizabeth Gilbert's book, hoping to be 'the' loving, compassionate being.
See some of my highlights.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could explore the world like she does after I retire, well her courage is inspiring.