REFLECTION

I had a very reflective moment today, and I just felt the need to share it somewhere.

It happened while I was at the movie, "ECLIPSE"...Okay, so that was added for comic effect, as the rest of this post will be a bit serious/reflective. And, actually it is not entirely false. I WAS at the movie, but it hadn't started yet. My moment of self-reflection came during the trailer for the movie "Eat, Pray, Love."

First off, I have to say - I have not read the book (and also that I would love your suggestions/input on this). I have shied away from it and actually turned my nose up at it, because it was described to me as, "a book of one woman's self-discovery, where she leaves her family to travel the world to eat and pray and love." The "leaving-family" part in the name of finding ones-self does not appeal to me. And I judged her for being selfish, which is wrong because I don't know the details of her story. I even rolled my eyes when the trailer started...

However, as I commenced in watching it, my mind began to open and I realized that there is a lot to be said for what she was feeling. There was a part where she said to her friend, "What did you have for lunch today?" And her friend said, "I don't know...a salad?" And then the main character talked about how eating used to be an experience. Weird, I know, that this interaction caused me to reflect on my own life, but I started thinking about who I am.

I think it is really easy, especially as women, to loose ourselves while we are taking care of everyone else. I don't consider myself lost, but I decided that I need to do more to reach my full potential. I want to:

A. Eat with less guilt and more passion.
B. Pray with more sincerity and pour my heart and soul into my prayers
and
C. Love with more intensity. I don't mean that in a TMI kind of way. I mean it in a way that applies to all of the relationships in my life. I am sometimes afraid to reach out to the people I love very most and tell them how I feel. I want to fix this.

Mostly, I want to be a woman of substance. The best part about it is that it wont require me leaving my family. They are a large part of who I am, but an even bigger part of who I want to become. I had a quote in my room when I was younger that said something like, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." And I feel really motivated and ready for this.

I know what you are thinking, "A little heavy for A Thursday night-Friday morning," and, "all of this from watching a silly movie trailer?" All I can say is, I take it when I get it.