The January issue of O Magazine has a terrific fresh-start flair and one of the highlights is an interview with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert as well as an excerpt from her new book due out in early 2010 called Committed.

From the interview, talking about how people see enormous success and — annoyingly — ask how you’re going to beat that:

I love the assumption that your intention is to beat yourself constantly … I’m really fortunate that this happened … after I had already gone through a depression, a divorce, years of therapy, a lot of self-reckoning, a spiritual journey. I was in the lucky situation of knowing who I was … I’m not what’s being said about me, either in the highest praise or the highest criticism. I know I’m not a self-indulgent idiot; I also know I’m not the second coming of Deepak Chopra.

From the new book:

To be fully seen by somebody, then, and to be loved anyhow — this is a human offering that can border on the miraculous.

Looking forward to curling up with a copy of Committed and letting a gifted writer take me where she will.