A couple of weeks ago while my husband was heliskiing, I got comfy on the couch, with a big bowl of popcorn that I didn't have to share, got the dog at my feet and I watched "A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood". A sweet movie about Fred Rogers.
Does anyone else remember watching Mr. Rogers? As a little girl I didn't understand what was happening to me while watching it, but as an adult watching the make believe movie version I now see that I was being infused with kindness and love, and emotional awareness. Just watching brought a touch of zen into my living room. There's one part in particular that, quite frankly, I don't want to get out of my mind. It's the coffee shop scene.
Mr. Rogers and the reporter, who's writing an article about him for Esquire magazine, are sitting across from each other in a coffee shop. The reporter is on the fence about this guy in front of him. Is he for real? No one can be this good, right? It's gotta be for show? As the reporter reaches for his fork, Mr. Rogers looks carefully at him and in that soft sing songy voice says, "Before we eat, let's just take 1 minute to think about all the people who loved us into being. 1 minute." He closes his eyes and rests in that thought. The reporter guy is a little shocked and looks uncomfortable.
Whoa, things just got heavy.
He starts looking around, checking to see if anyone notices. What he sees, and hears, is that everyone in the coffee shop has stopped and bowed their heads to do the same. It's quiet for 1 minute. Then it gets noisy and they eat their meal and drink their coffee . The end. No way man. The movie continues and does its thing. But that deliberate thought, think about the people who loved you into being, is powerful, and delightful, and so wondrous that I won't let it go. I want it to stick with me like honey I can't get off my fingers.
Think about the people who loved you into being.
In a catholic school I had the privilege to be able to tell my students that they're here because God whispered the thought of each and every one of them into their parents ear. They were loved before and they are loved now.
You were loved before, and you are loved now. We're literally loved into being with all the right things that had to happen before us and to us. We're formed into this person that we are, now, today, in this moment, by the village it takes to raise us. It's easy to think about who we are based on the negative things that have happened to us, but when we open ourselves to think about the love that shaped us into the being of who we are then we're opened to seeing ourselves as lovable beings. Because love makes love.
It's easy to think about who we are based on the negative things that have happened to us, but when we open ourselves to think about the love that shaped us into the being of who we are then we're opened to seeing ourselves as lovable beings.
Who would have thought that this 1 minute reflection from this little movie could be such a muse for our life?
Take what you need, and leave the rest xo
All my love and appreciation,
Laurie-Ell