Serendipity

I'm watching Julie & Julia now, the movie about Julia Child and a modern-day fan/student. It’s a refreshing to know that a culinary legend like Julia Child only knew how to boil an egg by the time she was forty. By the way, she got married at this age. Hope comes in unexpected ways!

For years, Julia Child searched for a career in vain yet never lost her unabashed embrace for the joys of life. It seems she always had time to smell the flowers even if direction about her life was not clear until her later years.

I admire her serenity as opposed to the pressure I put on myself because I have not achieved my dreams yet. Or what I think my dreams are.

I feel a kinship with Julie, her fan. I’ve gone through the same cycles of experiences – the highs of hope, fiery outbursts and lonely walks of pessimism. How can Julia Child be consistently buoyed by optimism despite advancing years and obstacles? Mixture of serendipitous connections, lucky breaks, fortitude and the mother of all secret ingredients – passion.

Oh, to have readers. Like what is happening to Julie’s character now. I will do a triple somersault if I can reach that. Or something like it.

Life throws in curve balls along with lifelines. I just have to find joy whether I’m crawling through a rough patch or gliding along a smooth wave. This movie is a shot of hope in my arm.

And may I say this, thank God for the joy of seeing Meryl Streep act.

Small Pond

I have begun to feel listless again. These periods of restlessness come and go, never really disappeared, merely abated by token instances of joy or clouded by frequent eruptions of everyday life's small pains.

I've been stuck for years. I think I know what I want to do with my life. Or what I hope to do but never really getting there. It seems so sensible to go on making a living the way I've been doing. I've been badly burned by jumping ship before. Yet the pull of dreams cannot be silenced. Movies have been made about topics like this. It's cliché already. Yet the human spirit is fueled by passion. Every person with this struggle feels the icy wasteland that this lack of fire brings.

I'm a dreamer, yet disappointments have blunted that part of me. I feel comfortable already in my small pond. I'm safe here. Yet more and more cold.

Maybe I should take a chance. I'm not young anymore to have years to waste on the rational. Will I ever reach a big pond? Possibly. If the universe allows it, I’ll touch the open sea. Each person should have that chance.