Gumption

Yesterday I watched "The Holiday." If you haven't seen it, it's a pretty sweet little movie. I could do without the Cameron Diaz/Jude Law storyline, but hey, if it lets me see Jude Law's beautiful self on screen for two hours, I can't argue. :)

What I truly love is Kate Winslet's character. I suppose she's meant to represent an average girl (which would be impossible for such a beautiful woman, except for her excellent acting), and she is profoundly brokenhearted over an unrequited love who uses her and treats her as an object.

I won't tell her whole storyline, but through circumstance she happens upon an old-school Hollywood script writer who she quickly befriends.

He, unlike the men in her life, see her as she truly is, and in a poignant moment over dinner says, "In the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend."

She responds, "You're so right. You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life... I've been going to a therapist for three years, and she's never explained things to me that well. That was brilliant. Brutal, but brilliant."

Oh, the power of truth tellers in our lives. I believe any person who lives a Spirit filled life can be a truth teller to those who believe lies about themselves. Speaking truth over a person- naming them with the names and gifts God has given them- is a powerful and freeing gift.

I know the problem exists as much in men as in women, but I am a woman so that's my perspective. :) How much do we long to be the leading lady, but often settle for less than they desire or deserve. Moreover, so many women are in denial that a) they truly desire to be a leading lady and b) that it is okay to want that.

I speak on behalf of myself about a personal metamorphosis that has taken place in my own life over the past several months. Through a bizarre series of serendipities, circumstances, and the power of the Holy Spirit, God has been teaching me so much about who God created me to be and how He wants to use me through the unique creation He made me. It's been a difficult and painful process, but honestly I don't know that I've ever felt more peace about who I am or where I'm going.

One of the hardest things to learn is to stand up for myself, whether it is to other people, to the lies Satan tries to tell me, or even to myself. I can't lie about how hard it is (especially when you're not really too convinced of the truth yourself), but thankfully, the Lord seems to have blessed me with an extra measure of conviction. :) Other words to help you better understand my "conviction", if you don't know me, are things like passionate, headstrong, opinionated, etc. :) I think that's the first step.

At the end of the movie :::spoiler alert:::, Kate Winslet's thorn in the flesh shows up begging for her to return to him. She, now aware of her true "role", is now empowered to kick him out of her life. When he asks what has changed, she replies, "I don't know, but I think what I've got is something slightly resembling... GUMPTION!" :)

I love that! I know seeing this movie again was a good reminder of what so many people need. First, people to speak truth into their lives and second, a the courage to stand up for themselves.

Randomlings

If you don´t read the PostSecret blog every week, you are missing out. To summarize, it´s kind of a contemporary art project. People from all across the country/world make postcards with their secrets on them, then mail them anonymously to this guy. He chooses a sampling to post on the internet every week. It´s so theraputic, heartbreaking, funny, and inspiring to read what people are holding in. The strangest and best feeling is when you read a card and think, "You too? You mean I´m not the only one?"

--------------

Recent Movies I´ve Seen

Olga-- A Brazilian movie about a woman who was one of the leaders in an attempted coup of the Brazilian government by the Socialist party. She was captured by Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. I watched this movie in Portuguese and could follow what they were saying well enough. My problem was that I didn´t understand the story. After talking to my friends afterwards I realized my big problem was that I thought the Nazis and the Communists were the same people. The Brazilians were shocked I could think that and informed me of course not, they´re enemies and at opposite ends of the political spectrum. This movie gave me lots of things to think about. Good movie.

World Trade Center-- Good movie, but I don´t want to see it again. I feel about it like I felt about The Passion of the Christ. I feel it was good and important for me to see it, but it was so stressful at the same time. I thought it was good for sticking to it´s purpose and good and staying unpolitical.

Take the Lead-- I liked it! I´m a sucker for nice stories, and this had several. Plus I love dancing and this had plenty of it. Good fun movie.

I haven´t seen The Last Kiss yet, but I am anxiously awaiting the video release in the US so I can see it!!! It comes out here in December. :(

-------------

Yesterday my beloved people from São Paulo came to visit! Oh it was so wonderful! What a great day of Brazilian lounging and eating and laughing.

-------------

I´d like to apologize to some people who I accidentally left off of my blog roll recently. I switched over to the new Blogger, and with that had to redo my links. I honestly believe that blogger is eating some of my links, because I recently noticed that Josh, Ben, and Praying Mantis were no longer links. There are probably others, and if you´ve been deleted, please don´t be mad, just tell me and I´ll re-add you.

-------------

I like my new cluster world map thing here on the right. It´s fun to see where people are reading me! It´s cool because I can see Jonathan´s little dot in Venezuela, Amber in Honduras, and Pamela in Canada... I´d like to give a shout out to my European readers! I have no idea who you are! ;) Fun stuff.

-------------

I bought my ticket to return to the motherland. Three weeks from tomorrow eu vou embora (I go away). I have about a billion emotions wrapped up in this, but I´m not going to write about it now. Maybe after I´m back in the US. I´m just going to focus on putting as much time as possible into being all here right now, completely in these moments.