So, in The Proposal, Sandra Bullock bribes her assistant to marry her so she doesn't get deported back to Canada. She ends up being forced to go to Alaska to hang with his family. The whole experience is dreadful--she is this cut-throat, workaholic editor, who doesn't seem to know what love or tenderness are--until her hubby-to-be's family loves on her and melts her ice-queen world. They actually turn it upside down. She realizes that she had been protecting herself from feeling any emotions since her parents died when she was sixteen. Anyway, before ruining the movie for you, I basically want to say that an Alaskan, family experience outside of cut-throat New York really affected Sandra's life in just a few days. And, I swear, that isn't just a Hollywood-get-your-point-out-in-two-hours manoeuvre. Because it's happened to me.
In 2004, I went to Kenya. I remember arriving feeling like, "Ok, I'm here, and this is awesome. But I may get malaria, there is no hot water, our house is lit by candlelight, and I have to put a mosquito net around my bed every night. So, I want to experience everything this has to offer but go home tomorrow!!!" I wrote something along those lines in my journal when I first arrived.
What is so cool, though, is that the entry in my journal the next day was completely different. I was renewed and inspired because we had an incredible day. After meeting some people that were changing the face of Narok town (a city west of Nairobi) by taking in a bunch of lost boys and putting them through school, I was moved. I had never witnessed anything like it at 19 years old. What I learned and the way I was moved by the amazing people I met changed me. In a day.
And then it happened again last summer. I went away for only four days and was changed forever. I experienced love and hospitality like I had never ever experienced at the Goff's Lodge in British Columbia. I had never met strangers who genuinely cared about me, who were really happy to serve me a meal, and who simply considered me a gift to them. In retrospect, it really affected me.
So, again, last night as I was falling asleep, I realized I liked The Proposal so much because I thought it taught a true lesson. As soon as we are put in a place of love outside of our comfort zones, our worlds get rocked almost instantaneously.
So, this is what I think we need to do more often.
Instead of chillin' and doing the usual, say yes to something that is completely outside of your normal experiences. If that thing emanates love, you will be changed in no time.
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It's amazing isn't it? The little things that can change someone. You could see small changes in her as the movie progressed, but the scene when the grandmother gave her the family heirloom really affected her. Her armor was broken.
It happened to me too. I went to community college for 2 1/2 years and lived with my parents.
I finished my last final at this community college and I went into Christmas holiday knowing in a month I was going to transfer to a big university down the street.
All I had been thinking about the entire semester was how in just a few months I would be moving on to the next step to bigger and better things. But something happened to me over the break that turned my plans upside-down.
One night I was in my living room, I had plans to go to Hollywood for 80's night, but it started raining really hard outside, so I decided to put off my plans and avoid the slippery roads. I built a fire, plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV.
I was flipping through channels rapidly, hoping to come across something that suited my mood for the night, when an image came across the screen that stopped me. I was flipping through so fast that I had to go back four channels just to get back to it.
The image was breath-taking and beautiful. I was so captivated by it that I didn't even remember sitting up. I had a feeling inside me that I couldn't explain, not right away.
Then I realized I just had something spicy a few hours earlier and it was probably just heartburn...... I'm kidding. No really, this feeling that took hold of me was very powerful, very moving, I actually had to stand up and move away from the fire because the room had seemed to suddenly get really hot.
This is the strange part. The next day I was driving down the wet freeway on my way to get my final transcripts sent over to the big university. It was a chilly day, I leaned forward to turn the heater up and just like that I saw it again, on a billboard. I couldn't believe it, my foot hit the breaks in a knee-jerk reaction, but I hit them too hard and nearly got run over by the car behind me. I was loosing it.
I had that same feeling again, I could feel it in my core, I had to roll down the windows because the car seemed to get really hot.
I didn't believe in "signs" and "things happen for a reason" stuff, but it couldn't have been coincidence that I saw the same image again on the freeway, THE NEXT DAY, and it gave me the same feeling.
This image, this place that I saw, I had to go there, I couldn't explain why, I just knew I had to go.
I went home and looked at schools there, and I applied that night. It was a bold move. I had never made any kind of decision that big without going over it with my parents first. But I was 21 and this was my decision to make, that much I knew for sure. I told them I needed to get out of my comfort zone and grow. That was true, I really did need to get out of the nest I had been so comfortable in. But it was more than that, something I didn't realize until almost a year after I left.
My parents had their reservations, but I think they saw the conviction in my eyes that I knew what I was doing. It turned out to be the best decision I could have made, because about a year later, I found my purpose, and I couldn't have realized that purpose anywhere else, that I am certain of.
SO I'll finish with a great quote from a book called The Compass. "Sometimes you must let go of the life you had planned in order to make room for the life ahead of you."
Hi, Rosie
I recognize your last sentence.
Let's live it every day.
love,
June
Wayfinder, who are you? I only just read your comment now...and I loved it.
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