A young woman got married at the age of eighteen (like her mother had and her grandmother and all the other women in her family before her). She had five kids in quick succession. “And when the oldest child was ten, and the youngest was three months old, this woman’s husband left her.” (E. Gilbert)

To make a long story short, her heart was broken and she cried in despair. But then – that very day that she realized her husband was not coming back – she decided that the vision of her being poor and pathetic for the rest of her life was not to be. She was going to see the world someday.

The woman decided to save $1 every single day. It was not to be touched under any circumstances. This was her promise to herself. It was not emergency money.

She saved $1 every day for twenty years, filling many coffee cans.

And when the last child left the house, she went on a cargo ship (it was the least expensive way to cruise around the world). It stopped every few days and she’d disembark and see a new country.

This is the story the woman told Elizabeth Gilbert at one of her readings.

Clearly, we can decide to take fate into our own hands.

We can make our dreams come true. It might take longer than we’d like, but it can be realized.

“You can have it all. Just not all at once.”

 – Oprah Winfrey