Clear skies ahead

I cry when I watch Frozen. Not during the scenes you'd expect. It has little to do with loss or joy or any of those other reasons. I don't cry because of the weak plot devices. I cry because I relate. To Elsa. In the Ice Palace right after Anna has informed her sister that their home is cursed by an eternal winter, Elsa sings "Oh I am such a fool! I can't be free! No escape from the storm inside of me." And the tears just come. I can't stop them. Because I know that storm. The storm of fear that rages in me and keeps me from my full potential.

Elsa fears herself, her powers, and hurting those she loves. But what she can't see is that her fear makes her powers dangerous. It controls them. When she runs away from everything, further isolating herself, she thinks she is free. Suddenly her full potential is clear to her because she isn't afraid of hurting anyone. But this is a false sense of security created by running from her fear and consequently her responsibility. She realizes her mistake when Anna finds her. While she begins to rage against herself once again, her sister is telling her they can face everything together. She sings, "we can work this out together. We'll reverse the storm you've made." Though Anna is speaking of the literal snowstorm, the parallel to the "raging storm inside" Elsa, a storm she created through her isolation and fear, is profound. This storm, too, can be reversed when they work together - through love.

Can't we all relate to Elsa? Any sin that entangles us we can get rid of them in artificial, ineffective ways. Then we realize it didn't actually work. It is only when we turn to Love - God - to save us that we become truly free. Men and women weighed down by illness or depression have days when the ice palace is being built and the storm seems to have some purpose and then they realize they aren't truly free from it and the storm rages again.

Like Elsa we keep things cooped up inside because we are afraid of breaking that "perfect" persona that we feel we are supposed to communicate to others. The temptation is to run from responsibility, not face our fears. We are powerful beyond belief, but we allow our fears and our insecurities to keep us from fully reaching that potential. The answer is not running, but rather facing and conquering. We can only do that with God.

Fear is my greatest enemy. I had a friend ask me last week what holds me back from writing. I think there are two things. One is the fear of admitting truth about myself I don't like - will I be understood? will anyone care? Reject? etc. Sometimes I even wonder if I can handle the truth about myself. The second is the feeling that I have nothing to share that anyone would care to read. I may think it's profound or a big deal, but they will all shrug their shoulders and think "What's the big deal?"

Without trust there is isolation. We have to trust others with our stories. We have to trust ourselves. We need people we can trust to help us understand our own potential. Just because we make a mistake doesn't mean we have to quit or despair. We learn, we grow, we change. We need others to help us see clearly. We all need someone else to live for.

Love. Trust. Live. For the good of others. To the glory of God.

This post is a part of a One Word 365 community, Trusting Tuesdays! Have your own One Word? Link up to your most recent post every third Tuesday of the month!

I'm going to go watch a good book

While waiting with great anticipation for the sixth installment of Harry Potter films to begin, I was regaled with four trailers for movies that are based on books. Stormy With a Chance of Meatballs, Where the Wild Things Are, New Moon and the one that really got me excited, The Lightening Thief.

There are so many movies that have been and are being based on books, and while I love most of them and enjoy being able to see my favorite storylines in a new light - some of my favorite Lord of the Rings imagery I never noticed until I saw it - I have to wonder, ultimately, doesn't it kind of ruin the whole point of a good book? I know, it's a great avenue to expose non-readers to the literature of the day and bygone eras, it's a money-maker, it takes far less time to watch a movie than read a book, and the best of them just make me want to re-read their books. And let's not forget the great debates we enter into while discussing the differences between these movies and their beloved page-bound-brethren.

I guess it just speaks to a whole different audience, not just in our culture, but in our own minds. There are times all I want to do is lay down and watch a good movie, and then there are other times when no movie can hold my attention, only the type-set of an engaging novel. So I suppose I will finish reading the Percy Jackson series, go see HP and the Half-Blood Prince again, read HP and the Deathly Hallows before the movie(s) come out and I go see those, and wait until New Moon comes out on DVD and watch it then...maybe.... All the while fighting the urge to open Pride and Prejudice or re-watch the new Sense and Sensibility every time I get bored.

The Dark Knight

My thoughts jotted quickly on a Post-It note after seeing The Dark Knight for the second time...

• Are you willing to be at the end of the gun? Have all the people you stand against out to get you?
• What do you do when you are falsely accused? Faced with injustice - do you continue to stand against it or give in?
• Do you make the right choices even if they are hard and unpopular?
• What does it mean to be the hero everyone deserves but not the one they need? To be more than a hero?