Everyone should watch the ‘I Am’ Documentary

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Are you an Ace Ventura fan?  I’ll admit that I didn’t love all of Jim Carey’s movies, but I did laugh a lot at a lot of them.  My thoughts today aren’t precisely about Jim Carey, but the man who directed those movies.  His name is Tom Shatyak and this documentary is mind boggling and satisfying on so many different levels.

First, he tells us his story – “making it big”, having a sudden, defeating health condition that seemed insurmountable, and his journey – all of our journeys, really – about trying to figure out what things we should be doing in this life – how to make it meaningful – how to find happiness.

Second he shows us by example, what great people have done to make the world a better place.  You’ll see footage of Martin Luther King Jr., his interviews with Desmond Tutu, and people who are renown the world over for their acts of peace, and charity.

Finally, he shows us by his example what he is doing to try to make the world a better place.

I loved learning that we don’t really know much of anything true about this world.  I loved finding out that the horribleness in the world is caused by a minute, but highly influential group of horribles.  Did you know that it is scientifically proven that our hearts can predict the future?  Wow.  Who knew that?  Have you ever met someone you felt was “ooozing with bad vibe”?  After you watch this documentary, you’ll know why/how that happens.

You’ll come out of seeing this movie with a short (or long) list of things you’d like to contemplate, act on, or change.  A caveat to you, though.  You need to watch it properly.  Wait until the kids have gone to bed.  Devote your energy to it.

I wish I could say watch it with your kids, but you definitely should not unless they are watching to “get it.”  And definitely not if they are under 13 because there are some disturbing scenes in it.  The scenes are specifically designed to teach you about your own body’s reactions.  You will learn right there on the spot how your body reacts empathetically to crisis.  It’s supremely well done, but still the images are definitely not for anyone under 13.

What I loved best about this documentary is that it’s not based on any religion, philosophy or other thing that could allow someone to watch it and then blow it off by saying – that’s all fine and good for that group of people, but I’m not one of them, so it doesn’t apply to me.

Here is a link to the trailer:

https://share.google/tTiFkcIAGKd4Njdts

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Love at First Reunion, An Eternal Prose

Posted on by brightercanvas

I knew thee in the space between time.

We filled each other with our ideas and the image of what we each could be.
We understood each other’s desires and found them pleasing,
but our hopes paved a road on which we could only reflect.
That untouchable road filled us with desire to be more.

To be.

And we struggled, because we knew that even our most ardent cogitation
could only fill a space reserved solely for musings:
Imaginings.
For all.
By all.
Individually.
Collectively.
Removedly.

We longed for sensation of any kind, but so much more to experience each other.
Truly. Experience. Each other.

And when you became you, way over there? Two eye blinks before, I had just become me, right over here.

Our thoughts were finally our own to keep or to share;
and these bodies, imperfect as they are, we could command and control.
We sensed our selves, and as much of the world as we could conquer.
We were drunk with the power of it all.

And when we came down from our sensational high, we realized we had gained our privacy and
maintained our agency, but still found our hearts wanting for each other.

And though our selves began fields and mountains apart, eventually, only blocks came between us.
Somehow, through decades of time and traversing tall buildings, after overcoming Ocean waves, barren fields, and backtracking down dead-end streets, we found each other.

Some claim love at first sight.
But I knew, the first time I perceived you through these imperfect turquoise eyes,
that it wasn’t my first time knowing you.

Two old souls communed again, but this time sensation propelled us toward feeling a familiar ease,
an elation for having conquered some mysterious thing.
But your hands tangled in my hair while your lips part softly against mine
still feels so much better than I ever imagined.

Shaunna

Jon Stewart Mill, whose name I am sure I just misspelled, supported a view that all things, people, and ideas existed in a spirit form before appearing on a physical level. This poem embodies that view.

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Amazing Places – my second thought…

Posted on by brightercanvas

In my past, I’ve traveled to a few places in and out of the U.S.A. and loved it. In the last decade, however, I’ve traveled mostly to the grand parents’ homes and Orlando. (And we all know what happens there…)
It has been my pleasure to watch the joy of discovery and amazement on my childrens’ faces on these trips, and now I want to also be joyfully amazed.  As I reflect on what places or discoveries would amaze me, I must report that they don’t have anything to do with the magic and enthusiasm surrounding a certain trademarked mouse or his royal associates.  Although my kids probably wouldn’t think so at first, I suspect that, given the opportunity, (and an enormous amount of patience) my family would find these places amazing, too.

Here’s my short list and I also included a photo..

.  I want to see Mount Everest (not climb it, necessarily, but see it.)

  and Machu Picchu.

I want to see the sun setting in Australia

 and visit New Zealand.

I want to see my ancestral towns in both Switzerland

Hardangerfjord and mountains in springtime, Norwayand Norway.

 

I’m sure that there are more to add, but now that my list is at least begun, I suppose that I should acknowledge ( though I didn’t intend it) that each location has something to do with mountains.  Which makes me wonder if I have an ancestral imprint of some kind that draws me to them.

Right now, the closest thing I have is Mount Laundry, to which I travel frequently, if not daily, right in a room off my kitchen. Showing you a picture would just be embarrassing, so I won’t.  Sometimes navigating that mountain can be tricky – treacherous, even. Its colors can be vivid, but the noxious fumes it occasionally belches and it’s slow, steady growth rate lead me to suspect it’s actually an active volcano.  (Insert prolonged sigh…)

In the mean time, I’ll be visiting this post more than anyone, just to see the sights.

 

 

 

 

My first thoughts about me

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My first thought about me is that I love trees.

I discovered (or rediscovered) this about me recently in the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.  That Pennsylvania even has a “grand canyon” was news to me, but while I was there, I lay under a beautiful leafy canopy and watched the rythmic sway of the leaves in the breeze.  It was nothing short of hypnotic.

I hope that I’ll be able to lay under the branches of a tree, and watch the sway of the branches in every season.  I hope to do it again when the canvas is multicolored.  I hope to make snow angels under clackity branches.  I wonder if it will feel the same inside, even if it feels frosty on the outside?  I want to lay beneath the tiny spring buds and try to count them.  I want to see that beautiful chartreuse hue that blends over days into lime and eventually to deep kelly.

When does that hypnotic effect hit its full potential?  I wonder: will it be the same over the seasons?

I remember being small and looking out my bedroom window at the tree in the neighbor’s yard.  Especially when a storm came in and caused the barometric pressure to fall, all of the leaves would lift up to show their undersides from the wind currents rising underneath them.  It looked like a grand puppet play to me.  Each branch conversing cartoonishly with the branches all around them.  It was alive in my imagination.   Though I can’t quite remember what I thought the many characters on that tree were debating, I do remember that they all felt very strongly about their views.  Waving their leafy arms emphatically, they sometimes pounced on one another to make their point.

About 15 years ago, my husband and I participated in a forestation project in Texas where, together, we planted some 500 or so trees over a period of two days.  That was just a sliver (so to speak) of the trees that were planted by the many volunteers who helped, but thinking back, I’m sure I wasn’t aware of my love of trees at the time.  We were just trying to be helpful to a friend who needed it.  Now, I wonder about those little seedlings.  I wonder how they are doing.

You may or may not remember that Disney’s Pocahontas sang that she knew every tree has a life and a spirit and a name ?

I think she was right.