What Get's You Going....Willing to Pay the Price?

What do you want most?...what is that get's you out of bed everyday and motivates you? Do you have a passion, a dream, a goal?.... In Black Swan, we see a very talented young lady so ambitiously pursuing her passion that she ends up paying a huge price for such a quest. Black Swan is a powerful, dark, physhological thriller. For sure entertaining and thought provoking at least for me. (Big surprise). The plot made me think of how we go about pursuing our goals, the pressures, expectations others have of us and the ones we have of ourselves and ultimately the price we pay for it along the way. When your a student, the price paid typically is lack of a social life and little money. As we leave the comfort and safety of academia and face the real world with all that is has to offer, what will the challenges and the pressures be and do have what it takes to succeed. What are we willing to give up and what will we gain. More importantly though, I think is this ....has a passion been indentified in your life?....is there something that motivates you to the point that you are willing to take the risk and venture out regardless of the cost. Going back to Black Swan, she took all the risk and paid the highest price. At the end she did have a wide smile as the lights faded to black. At the end of the day is that not what we all want? To end our days with a wide smile??...

An Apple a Day....turns out to be True....

Well...after getting sick yet again this year....I decided to do some research...

I am not a big fan of vegetables or fruits in all honesty. In fact, I tended to look elsewhere when my mother "nagged" me about what I was consuming. Getting sick however, is certainly no fun either!! Got the crazy cough that was going around for almost a month, a couple of months ago...got better....then got sick again...it came with a fever and I slept for about 24 hrs...great right:-)....then the unfortunate happened again...yup, you guessed it a third time!!! I was like what is up with my body??? Greatful that the last two times...over the counter medicine worked....but in all honesty who wants to keep taking any kind of medicine at all right???....so again back to my research above and o yeah...taking a second look at veggies and fruits....who knew at this stage of my life, I would discover yet again how right my mother was:-)!

While visiting her a couple of weeks ago...she made me a juice of green peppers, apples, lettuce, cilantro and really not sure what else. It was this green concoction...looked kind of funny at first I admit. Drank it and it was to my pleasant surprise quite tasty. So I decided then and there to buckle down and admit how right she was. Since then I went ahead and purchases a juicer and have been coming up with my own formulas! I love this stuff!! I have been feeling soooo much better in several ways and I am looking forward to staying healthy!

In my research, here is what I found out: all the veggies are good for fighting cancer, (yay!), are high in Vitamin C, B1, B6, B12, and so forth. Celery in particular (very tasty) is good for reducing inflamation, high blood pressure, and cholesterol. Apples are also good for just about everything. There is sooo much I could say....but like they say....pictures speak a thousand words. So here are a few of my latest...hope this inspires anyone who might acutally read this to check it out and test a few recipes of your own!...

Who is Really In Charge??

Well here we go again....questioning and digging for truth. Something I do all the time via books, movies, friends, and frankly where ever I may find myself.

This week I decided to take a look at, for fun and really as my canvas so to speak, the movie "The Adjustment Bureau" with Matt Damon. I really enjoyed the movie for many reasons, his acting, the story, and the platform to question as a woman of faith, who really is in charge? Our own free will, fate, destiny, chance or a combination of all of the above.

As a child I was raised in a home with high expectations of who and how I would live life. Early on I realized mistakes were not appreciated nor wanted. So I then too, had high expectations of myself and fearfully lived life not wanting to make a wrong turn or decision. As years passed I realized living to please another is harder than to make mistakes. I have since made a conscience choice to live from the heart not always the head- were analysis was a form of self protection. Never the less, the question has always baffled me. Does it matter what choices I make?....Do all paths lead to the same road??..Is what happens what is meant to happen??

In "The Adjustment Bureau" those questions are tackled when Matt Damon's character meets a woman he simply cannot live without. The viewer is introduced to a series of conversations were a group of people's job is to ensure "he sticks to the plan" for his life as the "Chairman" had previously decided. David Norris (Matt Damon) had been preordained to be a senator and in time run for the presidency. His whole life had been orchestrated to fit that end. That is until he is introduced to Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt)who initially was only meant to inspire not to be his love interest. All forces are set up against them to keep them apart. David however not only questions the plan but resists it and challenges it every step of the way asking why and why not?...as a viewer I found myself identifying with him.

He is presented with having to make the choice, staying with her, which meant what she is meant to be and do does not happen, or walking away for good. How he handles and tackles those choices is the meat of the movie so I will not give it away here. I think we all question that at some point in our lives. To what extent do I really have a choice and does it matter?... Our ability to choose for ourselves is I believe our greatest gift. Using that gift is both our right and our responsibility (for we still have to face the consequences of what we choose) so how we use it, is perhaps the greater question, we have to begin with. So here it is again...who is in charge of your life??

Beginning

Well....here I am deciding on how to approach this blogging opportunity...

How real and how deep should I be on this...should I approach this like I would a journal?...knowing that others might actually read my thoughts, opinions, and perhaps any feelings I decide to write about.... hmmm...this will be a work in progress ....ok here goes!

I was up very late last night...watching a documentary on child brides in Ethiopia with Lisa Ling.

I had so many mixed feelings and thoughts going through my mind. There were thoughts about o yeah...that's a voice over and that's a b-roll!...yes am getting this stuff...but then came the more serious awareness of what she was exposing the audience (me) to.

I found out by viewing this documentary that up until a few years ago, it was perfectly legal in Ethiopia for families to give their daughters away to marriage as young as 4 years old! The thought is baffling to say the least. The law was said to recently change so that a girl had to be 18 years of age to wed. What on earth I kept thinking would make that even an option? Poverty, lack of education, and cultural norms all play a part is this custom that seems to leave this girls (that is what they are little girls) forsaken and even abandoned at times. You see, they marry young, often they have not even started their menstruation cycles (that is how young they are!) and often are domestics to their often 20 and above year old husbands. Some of the girls highlighted on this documentary end up raped, exposed to disease, and often end up being single parents.

Apparently, since they are still babies (my words) they have a hard time delivering their babies. Often end up with a medical condition affecting their bladder and "leaking" causing abandonment and rejection by their husbands and families. Others end up exposed to HIV and Aids. Sadness, anger, and frustration were some of the emotions I felt...for this girls that are no different than I was or any other female. How much location (birth place) a difference makes!....

I looked back at my own life and that of eveyone I have known and thought to myself ...how blessed and lucky I have been. Fear and loss of control to the degree this girls face every day was not my common experience. Am very grateful for that. Now the question left is what do I do about what I know?....how do I proceed? Knowing this has changed me....