Thursday, September 30, 2010

Movie Review - "As It Is In Heaven"

Movie review “As it is in Heaven”. A rarified 9 out of 10 on the Jay Wolin Scale.
I saw this last night. I was moved by it. Surprised that I had never even heard of it before. It is a Sweedish film with American subtitles. Its focus is about sharing your thoughts and feelings and how that can lead to better relationships, or at least more authentic relationships and to community building. It deals with the fears that people have of loving others, and of losing others. Of our yearnings to have our potential fulfilled and the peace we can feel when we open up to our feelings and emotions. There was of course a story of a famous music conductor going back to his childhood home that is interwoven throughout but these are the impressions it left me with. There was some good theological stuff as well about death, sin and coffee. A must see. Some really deep and moving music as well added to the experiance.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Trust Yourself

Trust yourself
The alcohol does not let me forget anymore
My dreams have become reality
My reality makes me face myself
And I have forgotten who I am
This can be good
If one did not like oneself
How far back
Do we have to go
To see who we truly are
How far forward
Do we have to go
To be who we want to be
We are who we are
We are what we do
We are who we choose to be
And now as the days dwindle
And the horizon is closer
I hear the ticking down of the clock
Running out of time
Time to change
Time to be me
Or time to die
Or I’ll have another drink
And hope to forget
What could have been
Or still could be
If I only trusted myself

Friday, September 10, 2010

Quote - Days of Awe

"This is what the Days of Awe Ask Us: What is the core of our life, Are we living by it? Are we moving toward it? …If we seek the answers now, we can act in the coming year to bring ourselves closer to our core. This is the only life we have, and we all will lose it. No one gets out alive, but to lose nobly is a beautiful thing. To know the core of our being is to move beyond winning and losing". From: This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew

Friday, September 03, 2010

My Zen Garden

My Zen Garden
I received a small zen garden as a gift. It has a rake, sand, and some stones. As I set it up, first the one of the wooden spikes of the rake fell off. Was this merely poor craftspersonship or was this a sign, that sometimes we have to adapt and make do with less than the perfect tools we would like in life. Then as I poured out the sand into the garden and started to smoothly spread it, some overflowed out of the boxed garden. Was I merely careless or was it a sign that we should realize when we have enough abundance that we should let some things go. Then when I put the rocks in, it made it more difficult to rake the sand. And again, I found as I raked around the rocks more sand overflowed out of the garden. The only way to have enough room to rake was to move the rocks to the center of the garden. Thus the message is to center oneself to prevent losing the inner fabric of our life. Then I decided that I had delayed writing my sermon long enough and needed to get back to it.

Movie Review - "Greenberg" a 7 out of 10 on the jwo scale

Movie Review – Greenberg – a 7 out of 10

My expectations of this movie after seeing the previews was that this was a quirky independent film. This movie fulfilled that expectation. The mikeing of the dialogue could have been better (a common trait among indies – it may be more realistic, but if I don’t understand the dialogue, really what good is it) Ben Stiller is perfect for this role as an anxiety riddled former musician whose life didn’t turn out as he planned. He just makes you completely uncomfortable watching his awkwardness in his relationships. Ultimately that is what the movie is about. How difficult relationships are, or how difficult we make them and the lack of real authenticity in relationships. People are lost and look for anything to hold onto. I really liked the line in the movie when he says “Hurt people, Hurt people". And although the end is a little sudden and somewhat without closure, I really think it is perfect for this movie as it sums up the movie’s point. Anyway if you like quirky independent films, this one is worth.