LIMITLESS

When I first heard about a movie called Limitless I was excited. This is what we teach in Unity: we are limitless. Jesus performed miracles. He walked on water, he changed water into wine and he healed the sick and raised the dead. Even his own death didn’t stop him. Jesus also said “greater things than these will you do…”


While a few people have managed healing themselves and facilitating healing for others, not too many of us have figured out how to do all that Jesus did, but I believe it is possible.

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is not doing well in life. He has writer’s block, his girlfriend dumps him and his life is headed nowhere fast. Then remarkably he has an awakening to his true inner worth and power. Well, not exactly. That would have been a great spiritual cinema, but I suppose Hollywood couldn’t quite grasp that premise. Instead, Eddie runs into his ex-brother-in-law who gives him a mysterious new drug that promises to allow him to access 100% of his brain rather than the measly 20% that most of us tap into. The pill delivers as promised and Eddie is transformed and becomes, yes, you guessed it—limitless—that is until the pills start to run out.

Of course, this is Hollywood so there are chases and evil forces lurking and fighting for this power and drug. Don’t get me wrong, it was an interesting movie to watch and I rather enjoyed it. I especially liked the ending, because it left me wondering…kind of.

However, I don’t think Jesus was offering any pill when he told us we could be unlimited. There is no easy fix to enlightenment. I sometimes wish there was, but I have yet to find any. Jesus was unlimited, because he knew the truth about who he was. He was the Christ. He stood in that and he fully owned it!

I am unlimited when I stand fully in that knowing too. I have moments of it, and many more moments than I did when I first found Unity. You too can be unlimited and you don’t need a pill. All you need is the Truth that you are Spirit, and Spirit is unlimited. Believe in it. Stand in it. Claim it, and you too will be unlimited.

GROUNDHOG DAY

The following is an excerpt from my (one day to be published) book Reel Transformation.
GROUNDHOG DAY
Spiritual transformation can be found in all film genres, even comedies.

Groundhog Day (Albert, 1993) is a funny film that gives us a great view of someone who keeps refusing the call. We get a picture of Phil Connors (Bill Murray) at the beginning of the film as an adult who has, so far, successfully avoided the call to maturity and authenticity.

Throughout the movie we see him avoid the call over and over again when he tries to use his situation, not for personal growth, but for personal gain. When he does finally respond to the call, he opens himself up to an authentic, altruistic and loving life.

Home/Ordinary World

In this movie Phil’s Ordinary World or Home is not a physical place, but rather a state of mind or way of being in the world. He is a weatherman covering a story in Punxsutawney, Penn. on Groundhog Day that he feels is beneath him. “I don’t want to stay an extra second in Punxsutawney,” he says. He tells his cameraman, “Someday, someone’s going to see me interviewing a groundhog and think I don’t have a future.” He has higher aspirations for his career. “There’s a major network interested in me,” he says. We quickly see that he is a shallow, selfish, narcissistic, sarcastic, egotistical man who can’t wait to get out of what he considers a pitiful town. However, he gets stuck in the town another night due to a blizzard and wakes up to Groundhog Day all over again. He has become trapped in a personal time warp, waking up every day at 6 a.m. on Feb. 2 over and over and over again.

This is a wonderful analogy for the rut that sometimes happens when we find ourselves living, not just a day, but a life that does not satisfy us; yet instead of changing what we are doing, we keep repeating the same patterns, usually with different people.

Phil’s rut is more obvious in that he is actually living the exact same day with the exact same people over and over again. For everyone else it is the first time they are living this day, but Phil lives it thousands of times, again and again. The original script called for Phil to live the same day over and over again for 10,000 years. (National Review, 2006, paragraph 10).

We don’t know exactly how many days Phil stays stuck in the same day, but we know it must be a very long time, as we see that he learns to play the piano, as well as sculpt ice proficiently.


The Call and the Call Refused

Awareness of our life circumstances and the unhealthy patterns we live is a wonderful call to change. Too often we stay stuck in unhealthy patterns totally ignorant of them. Once we have awareness that we are stuck in a rut or an unhealthy pattern, we can respond to that awareness and begin to make changes.

Being stuck in the same day over and over again is an opportunity for Phil to look at his life in depth. However, Phil has successfully refused the call to personal growth his entire life, so it is not surprising that he continues to resist the call to transform.

Also early in the movie, when he first sees her, we see a glimmer of an attraction to his producer Rita, which he quickly pushes away. This is another call he has refused. Phil has seen something in her that attracts him. She is happy with life and her job. She is carefree, generous and giving, but he has denied those same qualities within himself; so he cannot accept them, at first, in someone else.

Rita represents his positive shadow. Our shadow is anything, positive or negative, that we have not developed or acknowledged within us that we project outward onto someone else. There is another side to Phil that he has refused to develop and this movie is about his acknowledging and transforming his dark side, and embracing and developing the light side of his shadow.

Interestingly enough, this movie has the backdrop of a groundhog—named Phil—coming out to see his shadow to predict the coming of spring, and that is what the human Phil must do if he is to transform and get out of this very long winter.

Before that happens, though, Phil realizes he can manipulate his situation with people since he already knows what is going to happen, and they do not.

The Wilderness

Phil continues to refuse to take any responsibility for his life or the rut he is in. Even when he knows exactly where there is a puddle on the ground he continues to step in it over and over again.

“What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same and nothing you did mattered?” That is the question Phil asks a drunk in a bar, who responds “That about sums it up for me.”

That about sums it up is a familiar sentiment for many people in life who are stuck in unhappy circumstances.

Phil asks, “What if there were no tomorrow?” “There wasn’t one today.” He figures out that no tomorrow also means there aren’t any consequences.

At first this knowledge empowers him. He finally misses the puddle, but allows someone else to step in it instead. He also begins being reckless, breaking the law, and using the knowledge that he learns each day to try and win over Rita. He is still acting selfishly for his own gain and does nothing to change or transform himself.

Later he falls into a deep despair. He is in the midst of his wilderness experience and nothing he does, so far, has shifted or changed his world. He is frustrated. In one of his broadcasts he shares, “You want a winter prediction. It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s going to last you the rest of your life.” Clearly he is having, what in spiritual language is called, “a dark night of the soul.”

He tries over and over again to commit suicide, but with each attempt he continues to wake up each morning to the same day. At first he feels invincible, like “a god”. Yet even the knowledge that he is immortal brings him no peace.

His deepest wilderness comes when he falls in love with Rita and realizes that no matter what he does, or how much he wins her over; she will wake up the next day and not remember any of it. He tells her about waking up to the same day and how difficult it has been. Her response is, “Maybe it’s not a curse—it depends on how you look at it.” This, of course, is the crux of his problem. He needs to shift how he looks at his life in order for him to change his life.

Transformation/Awakening

When he shares his dilemma with her, Rita decides to spend an entire day with him to see if she, too, can experience his time warp. She falls asleep next to him, and Phil speaks to her and confesses his love. He admits to the sleeping Rita that something happened to him the first time he saw her.

Something is beginning to shift inside of Phil. He still wakes up the next morning to find that Rita is gone and it is Groundhog Day again, but something inside of him has changed. During one of his weather broadcasts he tells us that winter is but another step in the cycle of life. He has become real and humble and has finally accepted his life and situation.

He stops judging others, and even asks for their opinions. He treats his cameraman Larry as a worthy co-worker for the first time. He begins doing things, not to manipulate others, but for himself. He learns to play the piano and to sculpt ice, and we can see that his arrogance is gone. He is doing these things, not to manipulate others or win over Rita, but for his own enjoyment. He is finally finding pleasure and joy in life.

He begins to use his day to help others. With his foreknowledge of what is to happen, he passes up spending time with Rita and, instead, goes around the town saving lives and helping others. We see him catch a child falling from a tree, and saving a man from choking in a restaurant.

Over and over again he tries, in vain, to save a homeless man from dying. He seems obsessed with helping this man, and even calls him father and dad. One wonders if there isn’t some unresolved parental issues he is attempting to work out. No matter what he does, the old man dies. Eventually Phil recognizes that he just can’t save everyone; he is not a god, and he finally accepts that there are some things he cannot change. We see the transformation in him during his broadcast the next morning when he says,

“When Chekhov saw the long winter…he saw a winter long and bleak and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney, and basking in their hearths and hearts I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.”

He begins to win over the townspeople who see him as the wonderful, giving man that he has become. He has embraced the qualities that he saw in Rita, and she notices the change in him. Rita is now attracted to him, and when the town holds a bachelor auction, she bids and wins him for the evening.

The moment that shifts everything for him is when he tells Rita, “No matter what happens tomorrow or for the rest of my life—I’m happy now!” He has finally reached a place of total acceptance of the now moment.

Returning Home

Phil’s homecoming is not to a physical place. Phil has transformed from an arrogant, self-centered man to one who is at home in his own self. When he finally comes to that place of peace and acceptance and realizes that he can be happy no matter what tomorrow brings, he finally wakes up to a brand new day with Rita lying beside him. His first sentence in this new day shows how far he has changed. He asks Rita, “Is there anything I can do for you today?”

He and Rita, having fallen in love, decide to stay and settle in Punxsutawney, and no doubt Phil will continue to grow and change, as transformation is never a one-time event, but an ongoing process.



 

BLACK SWAN: PASSION OR PERFECTION?

I used to be a perfectionist. Thank God I’m not anymore. I still place great value on doing good work and my best, but I’m no longer obsessed with having to do everything perfectly. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) in the movie Black Swan is obsessed with dancing perfectly.


This film does an excellent job at showing the audience the competitive, and believe it or not, brutal world of ballet. We get a glimpse of the toll it takes on the dancer’s body, especially their feet which often become bloody and torn. We see the diligence the dancer must take with their shoes, their body and their dancing. We also see the competitiveness and rivalry inherent among dancers.

The director of the ballet company Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) bypasses the aging lead ballerina Beth (Winona Ryder) and gives the lead role of Swan Queen in his newer, rawer version of Swan Lake to Nina. The role requires that she play two very diverse parts, the innocent and pure White Swan and the provocative and sexy Black Swan. Nina has the White Swan mastered, but being too young and inexperienced she can’t quite grasp what is needed for the Black Swan. Yet waiting in the wings is another dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), ready to fill Nina’s shoes should she not succeed. We begin to understand Nina’s drive for perfection.

The director, using sexual advances, tries to get Nina in touch with her dark and passionate side, but this would require an abandonment and letting go that just doesn’t fit with her perfectionism. Sex, orgasm, abandonment and passion all require one to totally let go of control and the need for it all to be perfect.

We soon discover that Nina is more than just obsessed with being perfect, she’s psychotic. She is a tortured soul who mutilates her body, or does she? Throughout the film we switch back and forth between reality and Nina’s fantasies, and it becomes as difficult for the viewer, as it is for Nina, to tell the difference between the two.

In the end she not only masters the role, but she literally becomes one with the passionate and dark Swan. Her ending words are “it was perfect.” This film is dark, violent and extremely sexual. It is not for everyone, but I found it to be an excellent, Oscar worthy film.

If I, personally, had to choose between passion and perfection, I would choose passion. I’d rather abandon myself into something I love and not worry about how it all turns out. However, I’m grateful that, unlike Nina, I’m not psychotic and am able to distinguish the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs

The Old Hollywood

I just discovered a new website called Theoldhollywood.com. It is sponsored by Hollywood producer and author Stephen Simon.

I had the privilege of meeting Stephen at a Spiritual Cinema Film Festival at sea a number of years ago. I was also a charter member of Spiritual Cinema Circle (http://www.spiritualcinemacircle.com/). I had to let my subscription go when I lost my job, but I truly hope to be able to renew it someday soon...if I ever get another job...I WILL get another job...LOL.

I also took a teleseminar with him and pitched the idea for my book Reel Transformation: Your Life Now Playing to him. If I ever get that book finished and published there will be an acknowledgment to him in the front of the book as I would never have even started it without his encouragement. Actually, I'm secretly hoping he'll write the forward to it.

Stephen produced one of my favorite movies Somewhere in Time as well as What Dreams May Come. He’s also just written a new book that I have ordered called Bringing Back the Old Hollywood. I’ve read the first couple of chapters online and can’t wait to read the rest. When I finish it I’ll post more here about it. I've become an affiliate which means you can buy the book through this link: http://theoldhollywood.com/cart_cmd.php?af=1283759 and I will receive $5 of the sale.

So click on that link and check out the website and Stephen’s blog and check back here later for my review of the book.

Our Crisis is a Birth

Does it feel to you like our nation is experiencing a crisis? Our economy is at its worst. Millions of people are unemployed. Our government is bickering across the aisle and stuck in how to solve our country’s economic problems, and many other issues as well.

What if what appears to be a crisis happening around us and to us is actually just labor pains? What if we are in the process of birthing something new and exciting? Well, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Ian Xel Lungold believe that is exactly what is happening, and I’m inclined to agree with them.

I looked back over my posts and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t written about this already. I was so jazzed by the Mayan Calendar film that Xel Lungold did that I watched it a number of times, showed it to a group of folks at church and sent copies to my friends…and yet I didn’t talk about it here.

Here’s the link to check it out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVIUBP2ho3c

Ian says that the Mayan calendar is about the evolution of consciousness. Everything that has happened since the beginning of time…even before the Big Bang has been a result of consciousness evolving, and consciousness has a plan. As many of you know the Mayan calendar ends soon. Ian says the calendar ending doesn’t signify the end of the world, but the end of the world as we know it, and the beginning of an entirely new level of consciousness where humanity becomes conscious co-creators.

Barbara Marx Hubbard who is a futurist, an author and a visionary believes that humanity is on the verge of evolving into an entirely new species that she calls a Universal Human. http://www.barbaramarxhubbard.com/con/

What I’ve discovered in my own life and in researching the subject is that crisis (or what feels like crisis) always precedes transformation. Now I’ve never given birth, but I have been present at the birth of a baby and what I know is that it is a painful, sometimes difficult and messy process. So is life.

Imagine for a moment that you are a fetus about to be born. You’ve been safe and secure in the womb and all of a sudden there are contractions and you are being pushed through a tight and narrow passageway. It isn’t comfortable. If you could see…you would see a long tunnel with a light at the end. You would probably think (if you had the capacity to think) that you were dying. But you are not dying, you are about to begin a new and exciting adventure. The baby doesn’t resist the birth process…it surrenders and lets it happen. If it did resist, it would probably get stuck and die.

So, what if our country’s financial meltdown and political chaos are just the contractions of birth? Let us too not resist, but help it along by staying conscious and trusting the process. We are not in crisis; we are giving birth to a whole new level of being. I can’t wait to see what we become!

PAPERCLIPS

It is amazing how one little idea can grow into something bigger than you ever dreamed imaginable. I am sure that the students and faculty of Whitwell Middle School never dreamt that their little afterschool project would ever end up receiving worldwide attention and eventually become a movie.

It started when the principal asked an instructor to create a program that would teach the students tolerance and diversity. Whitwell Tennessee was a small rural town with a population that, according to the US Census, was 97.35% white. So a Holocaust Education class was started in the fall of 1998. When told that 6,000,000 Jews had been killed during this time in history, one student, unable to fathom it, asked, “how many is 6,000,000? That set them on a task to see if they could collect 6,000,000 paperclips.

It turns out the paperclip played a role in Holocaust history. Johan Vaaler, a Norwegian, is sometimes mistakenly credited with inventing the paperclip. He did invent a clip, but it is not the same one use today. It seems the people of Norway used to wear the paperclip on their lapels as a symbol of resistance against Nazi occupation during the war.

As part of their project, the students developed a webpage and sent out letters to family, friends, celebrities and politicians. Slowly the paperclips started trickling in. Eventually the Press got involved and articles were written about the school project, and it began to pick up momentum. Paperclips starting arriving from all over the world. An old suitcase arrived from a group of students in Germany. Inside the suitcase were notes, written in German, attached to the clips. The notes were apologies to Anne Frank. (yes, this movie will make you cry)

It gets even bigger and better, but I encourage you to watch the movie for yourself….survivors of the Holocaust came and spoke to the students, a memorial was created, and over 29,000,000 paperclips collected….all from a little idea a principal had to help teach her students about diversity.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP15cY3f7UA&feature=related

YOU AGAIN

Yes it’s me again. I realize that I haven’t written here much lately. I’ve been doing lots of travel. I’ve been to Detroit, Indianapolis, Connecticut where I did my workshop Reel Transformation: Your Life Now Playing, and also was the guest speaker in Bentonville, AR. While I love traveling…there’s nothing like the ordinariness of a daily routine. I actually went a couple of weeks without going to the movies…oh my! We can’t have that! I had to make up for it by going to 2 movies in one weekend and watching 2 movies on Netflix. I just have to get in my movie fix.

I have also started a once a month Multi-Media service here in Fayetteville. At least it was supposed to be once a month. I did the first one on Eat Pray Love in September, but then traveled so much I had to forgo doing one in October. I have another one planned for November and the topic will be about the spiritual wisdom from the movie Inception. I just LOVE planning these services. I put all the music, youtube and movie clips into Powerpoint. I really enjoy putting it all together. I have a talk started on the spiritually of Avatar, but haven’t gotten back to it in awhile.

I went to see the movie You Again this past weekend. I enjoyed the movie, but I don’t think it will win any awards. The acting was a bit over the top and corny, but it was designed to be that way. It did have an interesting and timely message, however. It was about being bullied in high school, and how the angst of that can stay with you into adulthood. It made me think of the boy who recently committed suicide because a video of him was posted on Youtube. Growing up is difficult enough without being bullied by one’s peers.

I was made fun of in grammar school…and it was torture. I had a large nose as a child, which thankfully I’ve grown into. My classmates called me Grindl, which was a character on TV at the time played by Imogene Coco…who also had a big nose. I guess she didn’t grow into hers. I thought Imogene was ugly. While it was humiliating for me to be called that name, over and over again, I survived somehow. I used to hate my nose and yearn for one of those cute little button noses. Now I rather like my face, nose included.

The characters in this movie also survived into adulthood. However, they found it difficult to let go of the hurts of their childhood. Yet daughter, mother, and later we discover grandmother, all grew up and led very successful lives.

The title refers, I suppose, to having to face ‘you again’….the nemesis of our childhood. But I think it’s not about the other person at all. It’s really about discovering who You are again. Anytime we let someone else define us we lose our true identity and forget how awesome and Divine and special we really are. When we can finally let that go and be happy with ourselves, we’ve come home. I think as young children we remember how awesome we are, and then something happens and we forget for a while. I think it was designed to happen that way. We’ve left the Garden of Eden and we are wandering around in the wilderness. Hopefully we make it through and have an awakening, a remembering and we come back into our Awesomeness….our Youness….our I AMness.

If you are a teenager being bullied in school…remember, no one else can define you. Who you are is perfect. We are meant to be unique, but growing up is about trying to fit in and so being unique feels wrong somehow. Later in life it will all make sense. For now you just have to learn to make it through and stand up for yourself. Find others who are like you…they are out there.

If you are an adult and are still hurting over your childhood….get over it already! It’s in the past. Who you are is awesome. All those childhood experiences helped make you who you are today. You wouldn’t be the same person without them, so be grateful for everything. Remember the truth of who you are….claim it. Let go of anyone else’s identity for you and become YOU AGAIN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-UMzt9e34

Wabi Sabi

I discovered a new term the other day called “Wabi Sabi.” It is a Japanese concept about the beauty of things that are imperfect and impermanent and incomplete. This sounded a lot like my life and I immediately loved this idea. Anyone who is living in that in-between world that I call “The Void” can identify with learning to accept (if not love) the incomplete and the impermanent.

I did a talk once called The Spirituality of Imperfection, so this idea was not new to me. We are evolving souls and we are never complete or finished so it would behoove us to learn to appreciate our imperfection, because it isn’t going to go away.

I have, from an early age, loved the idea of evolution. I did a paper on evolution in grammar school and the teacher threw the paper across the room in anger. To be fair, she was a Catholic nun and I hadn’t realized at the time that Catholics didn’t believe in evolution. I understand they’ve since changed their position on that thought. Later in ministerial school I wrote a paper on the evolution of consciousness. My instructor, although he didn’t throw my paper across the room, argued with me a bit as well. I got a good grade on the paper, but I don’t think I fully convinced him of my point.

Others have been spouting the idea of the evolution of consciousness for decades, i.e. Teilhard de Chardin, Barbara Marx Hubbard and a host of others. Recently I saw a video by Ian Xel Lungold on the Mayan Calendar and apparently the Mayan’s have known this for centuries. According to them all of creation is evolving, and it makes perfect sense to me.

If we are constantly evolving, it stands to reason that we would never be complete, perfect or permanent. So why is it that we forget that fact and are often so hard on ourselves or our life circumstances?

The two terms Wabi and Sabi have separate meanings. Wabi refers to a rustic simplicity and can be applied to natural or hand-made items. One article I read described it as “asymmetry in a ceramic bowl which reflects the handmade craftsmanship, as opposed to another bowl which is perfect, but soul-less and machine-made.” Sabi is the beauty and serenity that comes with age, such as the patina on an old bronze statue or bowl. I’d like to think it also refers to those wrinkles around my eyes and mouth….they give me character, don’t they? It also reminds me of the Velveteen Rabbit that was ragged and torn and yet immensely loved and full of life.

Wabi Sabi…nothing is perfect and yet it is in our imperfection that we find our beauty and uniqueness. I like that! So, I am hanging out in the void and my life feels incomplete. So what? All of life is a simply one void leading to the next void, so what’s my hurry? I might as well enjoy the beauty of this moment!

REEL TRANSFORMATION MINISTRIES

I am in the process of filling out the paperwork for an Alternative Ministry called Reel Transformation Ministries. I am still looking for my right and perfect church, as well as other employment. Right now I'm living off of savings....God is so good!

This alternative ministry would allow me to do workshops and teach classes under the name of my ministry and receive tax deductible contributions. This is an interesting and long process. I have to file an Article of Incoporation with the state, create Bylaws and have a board of trustees. I also have to submit a proposal to the Association of Unity Churches to get approved and get a letter of recommendation from my Regional Representative. The deadline for submitting to the Association is August, but it wouldn't be approved until January of next year. Who knows where I'll be by then....I may not even be in this state. I may be working in my new church, and then I probably would have to put this alternative ministry on hold. But I feel drawn to go ahead for now, so we shall see what happens. Hopefully by January my book will finally be done and published.

I hestitate to even put this here on my blog, as potential congregations will come here to check out my blog. Please know that this is an example of living in the moment and trusting the flow of Divine Order. I would like nothing better than to be in a church working full time, and yet until then I must move forward to create...and this feels like fun. It may turn out to lead nowhere...and it may end up being something awesome. Who knows? God does.

A Change Messenger

I just participated in a teleseminar and realized that I have a new vocation: I am a Change Messenger. Maybe it’s not a new vocation, rather just a new name for my work or a clearer focus on what I’m already doing. Yes, I’m a minister, but really what my work is about is calling people to transform and change their lives through connecting with their Higher Power. On a smaller scale my work is about my own personal change…as I continue to change and evolve I have more insights to offer to others. On a larger scale, my work is about being a messenger to help facilitate change in the world. As individuals change—the world becomes a better place.

All of us are Change Messengers, not just teachers and ministers. As each of us transform our thoughts, words, feelings and actions, the world benefits. Our life transmits our message. What I’m also realizing is that each of us has our own unique message to share. My individualized message has to do with the Hero’s Journey and the Stages of Transformation that I’m writing about in my book Reel Transformation. What I am most excited about is helping people realize when they are being ‘Called’ and when they are wondering in the ‘Wilderness’ so that they can recognize that when they get fired or get divorced that something greater is really at work in their lives.

So what does this all mean? Well, I’m still working on figuring that out. I’m still looking for work in field ministry, but I’m also trying to open my mind to see if the universe is calling me to work in other realms as well. How else can I get my message out there for others to see or hear? Certainly finishing my book would be one way, this blog is another, but perhaps there are others as well. I remain open and receptive to the message and to God’s call.

Next Top Spiritual Author Competition

I have recently joined a competition sponsored by James Twyman to become the Next Top Spiritual Author. This is an exciting competition that gives us authors lots of support in the writing and publishing process. I'd been struggling for some time to find a way to describe my book in a short and consise manner, and this competition has helped me do just that! The winner of this competition gets their book published by Hampton Road Publishing. To make it to the next level I need LOTS of folks to go to the website, view my video and vote for me. There are 2500 people entered from around the world and 250 will advance to the next level. So please go and vote for me and tell ALL YOUR FRIENDS to also go and vote for me. Thank you so much.

The title of my book is Reel Transformation: Your Life Now Playing. It is a book about the spiritual stages of transformation that are inherent in any spiritual journey...and we are all on a spiritual journey. My book talks about how these stages can be seen in the characters in movies and also in your own life.

To view my video and vote for me go to: http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=1911 if you can't click on this link then copy and paste the url.

Here's the video, but you need to go to the link above to vote for me. Thank you...and don't forget to tell your friends.




Blessings,
Cindy

READY FOR THE OSCARS AND PREDICTIONS

Every year I look forward to Oscar Night! As soon as I find out the date, I mark it in my daytimer. Nothing interferes with this date! This year I’ll be watching from a motel room. It’s not the first time I’ve watched while away from home.

Lots of people have Oscar parties, but not me. I don’t want to be partying and chatting during the Awards Ceremony…this is serious business to me…LOL. I did invite a friend over once, but she left early. I’m up for the long haul. It was easier when I lived in California where it airs earlier. It wouldn’t matter to me how late it ran, I’d stay up. I’d sleep all day if I had to…can you tell this is a big deal for me?

Also, I do my best to make sure I see all the movies nominated. I try to see even the ones nominated for actors etc., but I don’t always manage to see them all. Now that I live in a smaller town it is harder as some of the films don’t even make it here. I had to see The Hurt Locker on Netflix. I didn’t manage to see The Messenger or The Lovely Bones. The Lovely Bones is playing here, but I haven’t made time to see it yet. Maybe that’s because I went to see Avatar THREE times…LOL!!! I’ve only seen 3 of the ones nominated for Best Animated Film and haven’t seen any of the foreign films and only one of the documentaries.

I don’t usually make predictions, but thought I might try my hand at it this year just to see how well I’d do. I’m only going to predict the top awards as I have no idea about editing and cinematography etc. and there is a limited amount of time and space here…LOL. So here goes….

Leading Actor: I think this is Jeff Bridge’s year. He was excellent in ‘Crazy Heart’ and should have received an Oscar a long time ago. His is due! Personally I don’t think there’s any competition except for Colin Firth who was awesome in ‘A Single Man.’ Morgan Freeman was great in ‘Invictus’, but he’s always great and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for him.

Supporting Actor: Well I didn’t see Woody Harrelson or Stanley Tucci so this probably isn’t a fair vote, but the money this year seems to be on Christoph Waltz in ‘Inglourious Basterds’. He brought life to his role as a Nazi officer and I think he will win.

Leading Actress: Well I know everyone seems to think Sandra Bullock will win, and she was great, but I think it will finally be Meryl Streep’s year. Meryl has been nominated 16 times and has only won twice and only once for Leading Actress back for Sophie’s Choice back 1n 1983. She nailed the role of Julia…you almost forgot you weren’t actually watching Julia Childs.

Supporting Actress: There’s no competition here…it should and will go to Mo’Nique for her moving portrayal of the mother of Precious. As bitchy as she was, she actually made you feel sorry for her…for a few brief moments anyway.

Animated Feature: I think it’s sort of interesting that Up was nominated for both animated and Best Picture. It has no chance at Best Picture, but it will win here.

Directing: If Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t win, then I think women everywhere should boycott Hollywood. There have only been FOUR women ever nominated for Best Director and no woman has ever won it. IT’S ABOUT TIME!!! Barbra Streisand should have been nominated years ago for Yentl…but that’s a whole ‘nuther blog…don’t get me started.

Best Picture: It’s difficult to predict this category, because the Academy has done some surprising things in the past. The money seems to be between The Hurt Locker and Avatar. The Hurt Locker was very well made and an excellent movie. It was an innovative idea to film it to seem like a documentary. It was not an easy film to watch. Avatar, on the other hand, was an absolute joy to watch, and it has rocked the movie world! James Cameron held this vision for years and had to wait for technology to catch up with his vision. There has been nothing like it before….EVER. Yes, it has no actors nominated, but the film deserves Best Picture and I, for one, will weep if it doesn’t win. SO THERE!

Well there are my predictions…enjoy Oscar Night ….I sure will!

Ramblings

Well it’s been awhile since I posted here….life has gotten a bit busier for me. I am helping out a church about 2 ¼ miles from where I live. They are a wonderful group of folks and I’m happy to help, but it does keep me busy.

I have still found time to see lots of movies though. Not much would keep me away from the cinema! This time of year all the great movies come out…many are vying for Academy Awards. I’ve seen Precious, Nine, It’s Complicated, Sherlock Holmes, Everybody’s Fine, Up in the Air, 2012, Avatar, Brothers, The Blind Side, The Princess and the Frog, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Invictus, and I’m sure a bunch more. I like all of them, but Avatar was by far the best…awesome!

I also watch movies on Netflix and last night watched Louise L. Hay: You Can Heal Your Life: The Movie. It was a great film…done in the style of What the Bleep…with some drama and a number of interviews by such people as Wayne Dyer, Gregg Braden, Esther Hicks and many more. It speaks about ‘changing your life through changing your thinking’ and was a wonderful refresher. One of my favorite quotes from the movie was, "Anything you complain about repetitively is something you have an unconscious intention to reproduce." Wow! That’s pretty powerful stuff! It heightened my resolve to watch what I say and be careful not to complain.

I am looking forward to a new year and a new decade. The past year has been an interesting year of waiting and waiting and I can feel things are ready to break forth. I am ready!

9: Pieces of the Soul

(WARNING: Contains Spoilers)

I couldn’t help but think of Harry Potter when I was watching the animated film 9 directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov. Why, you might ask? Well, because both films talk about pieces of the soul, albeit in totally different ways.

In Harry Potter the villain Voldemort rips away pieces of his soul by murdering others. He then places those pieces within an object known as a Horcrux. For those of you who are not Potter fans, a Horcrux is a magical object in which a wizard hides a part of his soul in an attempt to become immortal. As long as his soul is contained in the object he cannot die. Voldemort doesn’t seem to care that he has to kill others to assure that he remains immortal. He also doesn’t seem to understand that his violent acts serve to diminish the life force in his own body.

The movie 9 also deals with the idea of a soul splitting, but in a much more altruistic manner.

9 (Elijah Wood) is a sapient burlap doll who wakes up to find himself in a post apocalyptic world where all humans are gone. In this world he finds 8 other dolls, like himself, who have taken refuge from some huge machines that are out to destroy any signs of life.

Towards the end of the movie we discover that the human creator of these 9 dolls infused each of them with a piece of his soul so that life could be preserved on earth. He didn’t do it from any selfish motive, but from a loving desire to preserve the essence of life and to bring that life to his creations.

All of us are creations of a Higher Power and we were all infused with a piece of that Creator’s energy. We are all pieces of one Soul and we are already immortal. We don’t have to do anything or take anything away from anyone else to attain immortality, it is already ours. Our bodies may fade away, but the soul lives on. Those who understand this premise live their lives respecting others and all of life. Those who don’t, like Voldemort, strike out at others from a place of fear.

All of us create from time to time. It doesn’t matter if you are an artist, a scientist, a writer or musician, a cook, a carpenter, or a parent. We all create on some level, and we all want to bring something of ourselves into our creations. This desire innately comes, not from a place of fear, but from a place of love. We don’t diminish ourselves when we give rise to something out of love and creativity, instead we add to not only our life, but to the lives of others. All of us leave a part of ourselves here on earth in the things we create. This blog is one of the ways I lovingly share bits of my soul with others. What about you? Take a moment and think of the many ways in which you create, share yourself and leave this world a better place.