Movies and Their Power

When I'm feeling blue.  When the canvas on my little sailboat of life hangs motionless in a hot, windless sea.  When my steps are labored and I drag my feet around like heavy stones.  When hardly anything makes sense anymore and the world appears completely off its axis.  When fun has taken leave of me like some misplaced treasure.  When my soul has no more music in it.  It is then that I go to the movies.  

There in semi-darkness, the anticipation of excitement grows.  Alone or with a companion I soak up the surrounding atmosphere--people chatting, the screen running its ads and movie trivia questions, the soft dim lights signaling something will happen soon, the comfortable seats and convenient cup holders, reminders that small pleasures carry value. 

Has a plain old hotdog and soda ever tasted better than at the movies?  And what is it about movie theater popcorn that never changes and in spite of marketing efforts, is never duplicated? 

Eventually the theater darkens and the screen fills with activity--previews, Coke ads, that little piece about shutting off cell phones, until finally the main attraction is rolling and before I know it I am caught up in the life of a story unfolding on film. 

For a brief while all the burdens of my existence float off to some far away place and are forgotten.  All the poisons inside my spirit--hurts, sadness, loneliness, anger, stress, dread--are released in tears, in laughter, in suspense--and for a beautiful short-lived time I transcend every oppressive worry in the wonder of a movie. 

Later, walking out into the fresh air of the afternoon or evening, I greet my life again waiting for me in the real world. 

On my way home I know the duties of living have returned but I feel I am ready to fulfill them.  My humanity has been affirmed.  I have found my place again within the restless crowd.  Mysterious inner resources discovered in that theater of enchantment have emboldened me now to face tomorrow's deadlines and obligations with a curious new sense of relief, longing, and determination.

ã 2011 Timothy Moody

The heart lies and the head plays tricks

"The heart lies and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in a way knowing the truth." ~ George R.R. Martin, Novelist/Screenwriter

A Disciple of Death or Life?

"People are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail." ~ Lao Tzu, Chinese Taoist Philosopher

The Soul Has Different Concerns

"It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity." ~ Thomas A. Moore, Psychologist

Sorrow's Kitchen

"I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands." ~ Zora Neale Hurston, Novelist  

How Love Dies

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings." ~ Anais Nin, French/Cuban Novelist

Gather up the joys and sorrows...

You are to gather up the joys and sorrows, the struggles, the beauty, love, dreams and hopes of every hour that they may be consecrated at the altar of daily life. ~ MacRina Wiederkehr, Benedictine Sister and Author

When the Heart Speaks

"When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object." ~ Milan Kundera, Czech Novelist

Self Understanding

Self-understanding rather than self-condemnation is the way to inner peace and mature conscience. —Joshua Loth Liebman, American Rabbi/Author

A Reality We Cannot Avoid

There are realities we cannot avoid.  One of them is the importance of self-esteem.


Regardless of what we do or do not admit, we cannot be indifferent to our self-evaluation.  However, we can run from this knowledge if it makes us uncomfortable.   We can shrug it off, evade it, declare that we are only interested in "practical" matters, and escape into baseball or the evening news or the financial pages or a shopping spree or a sexual adventure or a drink.


Yet self-esteem is a fundamental human need.  Its impact requires neither our understanding nor or consent.  It works its way within us with or without our knowledge.  We are free to seek to grasp the dynamics of self-esteem or to remain unconscious of them, but in the latter case we remain a mystery to ourselves and endure the consequences.


~ Nathaniel Branden, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem