1. MOVIES

Dayna found it interesting that I put up my DVD’s of When Harry Met Sally and The Family Man for sale on Half.com…I think she likened it to emotional Jen purging, and now I can focus on BIG FISH. Deep, really. And it wasn’t even intentional! Alright, a little explaining here.

A. When Harry Met Sally – Love this movie, I still have the tape in case anyone actually buys the DVD…this movie is how I expected my life would be…I’ve strung along a bunch of “Harry” type men in my life for sometime…starting from High School. And really I assumed that one day, 10-20 years from meeting…I would end up with one of them.

B. The Family Man – THIS movie was a direct confrontation of what conflict created in my love life (or lack thereof) for most of my 20’s. I decided to stay with the man who was the workaholic, not wanting to live life…wait to live life-career career school be the BEST…and never had a chance with the other one, the adorable family man and the simple lifestyle. The wife in the movie was a Public Interest Lawyer…alas.

C. Big Fish – Why my life is like the currently like the movie Big Fish…this was a post in coming for sometime.

One of my favorite books as a little kid was “A Fish Out of Water” by Helen Palmer.

A little boy buys a fish from Mr. Carp. He calls the fish Otto. Mr. Carp told the boy to feed Otto no more than a spot. The little boy did as told. But saw that the fish was sad, he wanted more. He just HAD to have more. So he fed him and fed him…and Otto grew too big for his bowl…the rest of the story the boy tries to find a place big enough to keep the fish…eventually he calls Mr. Carp for help and Mr. Carp gives the fish a secret potion and Otto returns to his small bowl.

In the movie BIG FISH, the same idea takes shape…

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you’re not too big? Maybe this place is just too small?”

2. BOOK

Ten Minutes from Normal, Karen Hughes.

Quotes that struck me in one way or another…self explanatory, really. Good book by the way, a fast read (although I love this particular subject…)

“We all started dating the men who would be our husbands at about the same time, and we would get together for parties at each other’s houses. I had fallen in love with Jerry and his sharp tongue, his quick mind and great sense of humor. I also loved the feeling of belonging that came with my relationship with Jerry and Leigh (his daughter), and I began longing to make this feeling permanent.”

“Politics appealed to my competitive instincts; campaigns were exciting, captivating and a team sport. I wanted to know more, to learn it from the inside rather than watching it from the outside. The security of my marriage gave me freedom to leap into the unknown, knowing it wasn’t a free fall; I had a parachute at the end.”

“I worry that the obsessive interest in a candidates past prevents too many good people from running for public office.”

She mentioned this line from Kipling’s poem “If”

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.”

She mentions a daily political briefing called The Note.

” ‘How is it that a nice woman like you got to be a Republican?’ a woman who was obviously not a Republican asked me at one of my recent speeches. I am Republican because I believe the Republican Party has the right understanding of the role of government and the role of the individual. Government must act for the collective good in defending our country, enforcing laws, protecting the vulnerable-government must support the conditions and climate for individuals to seize opportunities and pursue their dreams. But government that is too big crowds our individual initiative and ambition. I believe in the philosophy of my political party fosters individual freedom and individual responsibility.”

“St. Augustine used a beautiful phrase: ordo amorum, the order of the loves. The most important thing you do in life is choose your loves and order them very carefully.

3. CALLING IN THE ONE

Yes, my cheezy self-help therapy book. I started this when? Back in February. And I finished it last night. I have set my intention for love, I have shared it with those around me who can help me stay within this secret intention

Where do I start with this post? This was the last thing I did last night before falling asleep, rounding out the possibilities of my inspirational dream.

Quotes that spoke to me…the book is scattered with random quotes along the margins, relating to each lesson…here are some…

“The end is where we start from.” T.S. Eliot

“If one wishes to be a lover, he must start by saying “yes” to love…A lover says yes to life, yes to joy, yes to knowledge, yes to people, yes to differences. He realizes that all things and people have something to offer him, that all things are in all things.” Leo Buscaglia

“The measure of good mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness and true freedom come only when we assume full responsibility for who we and what we are.” Leo Buscaglia

“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It creates the failures. It makes others feel as though you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.” Anais Nin

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” Helen Keller

“We have no more right to happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.” George Bernard Shaw

“Most people are about as happy as they make their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln

“Real action is in the silent moments.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere, they are in each other all along.” Rumi

“The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.” William Hazlitt

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. Then go and do that.” Harold Whitman

“If you are attached to being the lover or the giver, as opposed to giving when giving is needed or loving when loving is needed, then you are bound to be depleted. I must always maintain my own core or I have nothing to give from. Periodically, it is appropriate to take a break from giving.” Reverend Amy Wiggins

“The truth about intimate relationships is that they can never be any better than our relationship with ourselves.” James Hollis

“If you are to advance, all fixed ideas must go.” Joseph Campbell

“Man cannot discover new oceans until he has courage to lose sight of the shore.” Anonymous

“If you admire greatness in another human being, it is your own greatness you are seeing.” Debbie Ford

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” Marianne Williamson

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.” Carl G. Jung

“Soulful marriages are often odd on the surface.” Thomas Moore

“The soul selects her own society.” Emily Dickinson!