|
|
||
|
Over the years I find myself being drawn to pieces of abstract art like those of Aleta Pippin. Color is usually the first thing to draw my attention, and once I am captured by the feast of color I look for the way they dance across the canvas. The above dance seems to have a Gypsy flare with rich silks spinning wildly and passionately to the beat of the music. Bangles clinging, body swaying and lost in the moment… To see more of Aleta’s beautiful dances, visit her website at http://www.aletapippin.com
This blog started out as a sort of journey for inner and world peace, however, recently I decided to take a new direction. You could call it a renaissance so to speak of an awakening to what I find inspiring. I have a creative spirit, with a message that wants to get out, and I have yet to find the media in which to share it. Meanwhile, my posts will be of what I find inspiring and I seem to find inspiration in many way. Here are just a few:
Please join me in my continuing journey to Shambala, the place of peace and inspiration.
Director: Clint Eastwood Writer: Dave Johannson (Story) Nick Schenk Screen Play Release Date: 2008 Clint Eastwood reminds us again just why he is the legend that he is. It just doesn’t get any better than his magnificent performance in Gran Torino. Even my 16 year old son commented “Wow! Clint Eastwood is a really good actor!”. What a joy, to be able to share the legend of my day, in a new movie with my son of a new generation. The movie had some violence, however, it was a lot more humorous and uplifting than we first anticipated. Clint indeed has his ways of making you fall for the crotchety old character that he played. After a few breif google searches I discovered that this was the first major performance of the two young co-stars in the movie, Ashney Her and Bee Vang. The open call was for young Hmong actors and both fit what they were looking for. Ashney and Bee were amazing, and I never would have guessed this was their first major performances. Ashney in particular just lit up the screen with her gutsy tell it as it is personality. If she persues acting as a career, I think she will go a long ways because she was really that good. She literally had you from hello. I don’t think it will matter if you are a Clint Eastwood fan or not, Gran Torino was very entertaining and leaves you with a powerful message in what it takes to stop the cycle of violence.
Director: Julian Schnabel Written by: Jean-Dominique Bauby (Book) Ronald Harwood (Screenplay) Language: French Year Released: 2007
I picked this movie up at the local library this weekend. It has been out for a few years now, but I remember it getting good reviews and it had been on my list of movies to see. This is one of those movies you need to take the time to sit and watch when you’re wallowing in your own personal pity party and feeling very sorry for yourself, when life is not going the way you had planned or envisioned it to be. The opening scene is of a man coming out of a coma, only you are the man. Your vision is blurred and the doctors are explaining to you how long you have been in a coma and they are asking you questions about who you are and about your wife and children. You answer the questions, and then realize that no one can hear your answers. Your vision is still blurred and limited, you can hear and think, but you cannot speak or move. It is as if you are locked in the chamber of a heavy motionless body unable to communicate your wants and needs. The man is Jean-Dominique Bauby, he is 43 years old and had a career most people only dream of, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. His lifestyle was exotic and included beautiful women, fast cars and world travel. On December 8, 1995, Jean-Dominique’s life all but ended with a massive stroke that left him completely paralyzed with a rare condition called “locked in syndrome”. Amazingly this man learns to communicate by only blinking his eye, and he wrote the book, which is this movie, about his experiences of being locked in his body. Indeed a movie that makes you realize how much there is in life to be thankful for and how you need to appreciate what you already have.
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (i’ve loved you so long) Writer and Director – Philippe Claudel Staring – Kristin Scott Thomas as Juliette fontaine and Elsa Zylberstein as her sister Léa This is a beautiful French movie that takes you on a journey to glimpse the soul of Juliette Fontaine, a beautiful English woman who has just been released from prison after losing fifteen years of her life in confinement on the conviction of murder. Juliette’s sister Léa who is a young, loving wife and mother of two little adopted girls from Veitnam, takes in Juliette who has nowhere else to go, in the hopes of rekindling a relationship with her long lost sister. Kristin Scott Thomas give a magnificent performance as she skillfully draws you in to the mystery as to what would make such a seemingly innocent woman such as herself commit murder. The movie helps you take a look at your own prejudices and allows you to become aware of how easy it is to jump to conclusions and take knee jerk reactions without really understanding the full scope of a situation. As the movie progresses, Juliette opens herself up little by little as her courageous sister helps her to heal the wounds from her past. Well written, thought provoking and beautifully acted. I highly recomment this as a movie to watch when you are of quiet mind and open to taking a glimpse into your own soul. I took my sixteen year old son on a road trip over spring break and let him drive to really break in the drivers permit. We drove from Vegas to Flagstaff and spent five days in northern Arizona. He did an amazing job not only driving long distance on the highways for the first time in his life, but also handling the mountainous narrow We managed to see quite a bit during our short stay and didn’t waste a minute. Day one: Made a quick stop at the Hoover Dam – (the new bridge over the dam is well on its way to being completed). We then drove another three and a half hours to Flagstaff and checked into our motel (located right on the famous Route 66). Drove over to the visitors center in down town Flagstaff (which is located in the old train depot) to pick up some maps, brochures and coupons, and then used one of our coupons the Lowell Observatory where we watched a short film on the expansion of the universe and got to see the moons and rings of Saturn through their 24″ telescope. (The Lowell Observatory is where Pluto was first discovered). Day two: We dove down to see Montezuma’s Castle which is one of our our Nations National Monuments, and th Day 3: The Grand Canyon! Before going into the Grand Canyon though we stopped at the National Geographic Visitors center at the South Rim entrance to see The Grand Canyon Movie in the Imax theater. It was nice to see the movie first as it presented a brief history on the people who lived in the canyon as well as the people who explored one of the worlds greatest wonders. Day 4: The Museum of Northern Arizona! This is a must see for a visit to Flagstaff as the museum houses houses nearly 5 million objects in its anthropology, biology, fine art, and geology collections. We also saw an exhibit on the discovery of the most complete therizinosaur skeleton ever found. We then went to two more national monuments, the Sunset Crater National Monument and the Wupatki National Monument which is a large 100 room pueblo built Day 5: Back to the Grand Canyon for a hike down the Bright Angel Trail. We only went down about two miles (which was more than enought to get the experience of actually being in the canyon.) And since discovering that it’s not too far a drive to get there from Vegas, we might go back for a longer hike even further down canyon. Day 6: Back home to Vegas for rest and relaxation! What I learned on this trip, was that the universe is very large and our earth is very small, and generations come and go leaving only glimpses of themselves behind, and the problems that seem so big to us today, are really nothing in comparaison.
No, I didn’t apply to be a Spanish “casa” , but I did apply to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children. The application process to be accepted into this program was quite lengthily and included a background check, finger printing, several personal references and an in depth interview. Yesterday I was officially accepted into the program and now it is onto thirty-six hours of training. In May I will go to court to take a special oath and then I will be assigned a child. So exactly what is a Cort Appointed Special Advocate? A CASA is the voice of a child in a court of law. Children are too young to speak for themselves, and there are just not enough case workers to handle the amount of children that are in the foster care system, so a CASA is a person who is appointed by a judge to observe and stay with a child until that child is placed in a safe and permanent home. Once I am assigned a child, I will be part of that childs life over the next two years. Some children are in and out of so many foster homes, that a CASA is one person that doesn’t keep going in and out of their life. A CASA offers the child a sense of security, that there is one person out there that they can truly count on to be there for them. I have volunteered for other things before, but nothing quite this intimate. I have been taking baby steps just trying to get my feet wet little by little and the closer I get to being trained the more excited I am to be a part of this program. Two months ago I had never even heard of CASA, and then one day the widow of one of my employees who recently passed away stopped by and told me that she was going to sign up to be a CASA. It kind of slipped my mind until I came across a webpage with a link to the local CASA site and saw they were accepting applications. So out of the blue, I just went ahead and applied. One of the things that concerns me going into this is that I get quite emotional when it comes to children, and to see a child hurting could be a very difficult thing to witness. But after taking a few steps back, I convinced myself that I could afford to expose myself to their pain, knowing that my presence might offer them a bit of comfort. Thoughout my training, I will be working with like minded people and I feel that they will be a tremendous resource for me to fall back on and support me through this process. There is a great need for CASA’s in our family court systems, so if you live in the states and are looking for a way to volunteer in your community, it might be worth checking out.
It was made from a picture I found in Pixdaus of an exodic bird with feathers in the most beautiful and vibrant fall colors. Mandalas are known to still the mind when you look into its center. Click on the picture to enlarge and see the detail.
The film is a short watch, only about thirty four minutes long and transcends time, age, language and nationality. I sat my rambunctious three year old nephew down to watch it with me and I was amazed how quietly he sat through the entire film, memorized by a mischievous red balloon that followed a little boy throughout Paris. Albert Lamorisse I think has to be one of the great film makers of all time. How back in the 1950’s he got the balloon to magically follow the little boy around the city I believe was pure genius. And then there was this beautiful story that even a three year old can silently watch and understand from beginning to end, over fifty years after it’s release. The movie is in French, but there is only a few spoken sentences in which you don’t need to know the language to understand what is being said. If you have a little one in your house or family, this is a heartwarming film that will be enjoyed by children from generation to generation. And I must say, that for the child that still lives within me, I couldn’t help but be touched by this big red balloon that simply captured my heart.
I am a huge fan of StoryCorps and look forward to listening to a new story every Friday on the NPR. I have blogged before about StoryCorps, a non profit organization that has traveled across the country compiling the most amazing stories of ordinary people from all walks of life. It is said that when these ordinary people enter the soundproof booth to interview their loved ones, that something magical just happens and they remember things, or the stories just come out that they hadn’t even planned on talking about. There have been many times as I listen to these stories on the way to work that I find myself just bursting into tears and out right bawling desperately searching my bag for a tissue. The stories are real, personal, genuine stories that are about love, kindness, forgiveness, and gratitude. They are also about pain, struggle, suffering and despair. If it is a human emotion, StoryCorp has probably touched it. So now, StoryCorps has taken this one step further, and reaching out to its listeners to try it themselves. Take one hour during the Thanksgiving holiday when you are with your family and friends and arrange to interview each other and see what happens. You may be surprised to see what spills out. To make this a little easier for you, they have devoted a web page with tips and a do-it-yourself guide to help you come up with a format and questions. If your story could be of inspiration to others, consider sharing it on their website. Everyone has a story, so have a little fun and make the time to find them. |
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Indigo-Daisy - All Rights Reserved |
||
Title: Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
and curvy roads we came across along the way.
en drove back up to 
in the 1100’s. There is a 
Last month I put in an application to be a CASA. When I told my son about it, his first response was “so you want to be a house?”
"Le balloon rouge" or "The Red Balloon" is an older short film first released in 1956 and both written and directed by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse.
Start a new family tradition this year by participating in StoryCorps first annual 
