Once Upon A Time

I haven't posted one of these in a while. I figure I better get busy because the Fall season is upon us and I haven't done much recapping of what was good about last season. I hardly think one post qualifies! I am going to start limiting these posts to my TV blog, so if you like this sort of thing, you should start following that blog. If I think of it I will make a notation that I have posted on my regular blog and link it in. However, I wouldn't place any bets on my remembering to actually accomplish this feat.

As I mentioned the last time I posted like this, picking one scene out of a season is extremely difficult. With this show, I could not do it. I thought I had it, but then I changed my mind. The show is JJ Abram's Once Upon A Time. The premise of that show is that the Evil Queen placed a curse on all of the storybook characters taking away their Happy Ever Afters. Instead, they no longer know who they are and live in our world in a town called Storybrook, Maine. They cannot leave the town. The only one who knows the truth of the matter is the Evil Queen (Regina) who is the Mayor of the town and Rumpelstiltskin (Mr. Gold). Regina's adopted son suspects the truth when he reads a book of Fairytales provided by his teacher (Snow White) and becomes determined to save the town.

JJ Abrams is also known for Felicity, Alias, Lost, and Alcatraz. I know that he has numerous movie projects to his credit. The only one immediately coming to mind is the newest Star Trek movie (the prequel). Whenever I see his name attached to something I am willing to give it a whirl. His imagination is fearless. I like that about him.

Anyway, Once Upon A Time embraced many of the style points that made Lost so much fun. It, too, rockets back and forth between past and present to tell the story. Even though the characters don't remember who they are, it doesn't change your choices so much. People don't change at the CORE. In other words, you are who you are. So, as they face challenges in this "foreign" world, the story often juxtaposes to their past when they faced a similar challenge. All of these characters are onions. I love that. Mostly because you don't really expect it in a fairy tale. In the fairy tale good is good and bad is bad. Black is black and white is white. There really was no grey. In Once Upon A Time you discover that the story has a lot more shading than you originally thought.

And people aren't just born evil. It was a JOURNEY. And it is walking that mile in their shoes that is always the most interesting part. So, you start out hating the Evil Queen because she is just so darn hateful and evil. And then at the end you find out how she got that way and it is like being turned on your head. Evil isn't born; it's made. And while you wish she had made different choices and could embrace things like forgiveness, those things, too, are taught. What happens when you are raised by evil?

So, I am going to show you two clips. The first one is a combo clip. I would have liked to show you a clip from episode 18 that really showed what happened to Regina to turn her evil, but Disney has pulled it off of youtube. This clip has pieces of it in there, along with other stuff, so it should give you a pretty good picture of what happened.



That episode changed everything we thought about Regina. She was a girl in love with a boy. She had a controlling mother who abused magic for her own ends. A little girl, Snow White, found out about this love that Regina had for the stable boy and encouraged Regina to marry him. Regina decided to leave home with her love, but told Snow that she must not tell anyone, especially her mother. However, Snow was grieving for her own mother, so when Regina's mother began to question Snow about Regina, Snow was an easy target. She easily gave up Regina's secrets, believing all that false concern Regina's mother expressed. And then Regina's mother found Regina and her love and killed him. She then forced Regina into a marriage with the king. When Regina found out what Snow had done, her heart hardened and she blamed her, her father, the whole world for her misery. They would all pay for Daniel's death. They would all be just as miserable as she was. The opposite of love isn't apathy. It is hate. And her hate just ate her alive.

Now, was it unrealistic to expect a little girl to keep a big secret like that? Of course. Did Snow reveal that secret to hurt Regina? Of course not. She thought that Regina's mother loved her in the same way that her own mother had loved her. She didn't know how wrong she was. She didn't know what kind of person Regina's mother was. She didn't understand these people at all. She was a child. However, Regina's pain over the loss of her love never allowed her to see Snow that way.

And that is what makes this scene the best of the season...



Ironically, they are both doing the things they are doing out of love. Regina is doing what she is doing out of a twisted love for Daniel. Snow is doing what she is doing out of a pure love for the man she has come to call Charming. Regina thinks that bringing a non-death to Snow White will bring her peace. It won't. She doesn't yet get that because what she really wants is Daniel back and nothing will give her that. However, Snow will have her peace because she is giving the man she loves safety, even it is at her own expense. They are living on the opposite sides of the emotional spectrum. Ironically, watching this scene I feel more sorry for Regina than I do Snow White. She has a long way to go before she will know any peace in her life.

Until you dig out all of the junk there is no room for any good stuff in your life.


image found here

How Can We Make This Fun?

We have been back home for a few days and I have been meaning to blog, but I have been busy catching up. Deep breath. Slow down. And here we are.

I had to look over my last blog to see where I ended. St. Augustine Monday morning. I was about to meet a fellow blogger.

Well, that was so much fun. My mom and I met JJ and his wife in downtown St. Augustine at a restaurant whose name I can no longer remember. However, it was lovely. And the company was great. Meeting fellow bloggers is truly a fantastic experience. You finally get to put a face and a voice to the words. And I loved JJ's wife. She is a gem of a person. Lunch went by very quickly, as it always seems to when you are having such an enjoyable time, and we promised to try and get together again.

Mom and I spent the rest of the week in the car traveling back and forth from St. Augustine to Jacksonville, Eulee (Fernandina), or South Georgia area (Kingsland, St. Mary's) to look at real estate. We left early and got home late each day. However, we did learn a lot about what was happening in the real estate market in general, what sort of house we wanted in specific, what area we preferred in each location, etc. The time was well spent, but we were both worn out by the end of the week.

It was hard to believe that when Saturday rolled around we still hadn't seen the beach. Gah.

I put another call into JJ and his wife and we met up again and we met at a restaurant on the beach and sat on the screened porch. Now, that was perfect. No sand. No actual water in my toes. But the view was amazing. And the breeze was fantastic. Of course, the company makes any situation delightful and this was no exception. We sipped on tea and then had an exceptional meal. They then came to our resort to do some more porch sitting so that we could finish out our visit. It was a lovely way to finish out our vacation.


image found on facebook, of course

Are You Keeping The Toxic Junk?

I am on vacation again. I know, it is insane.

A person can barely drag me out of the house and now I am everywhere.

Mom and I are in St. Augustine for the week. We stayed last night in Jax with a friend of hers from church (back from when we lived here a few years ago). And are considering moving back to the area, so one of the things we will be doing this trip is looking at real estate. Yeah, this is looking less like a vaca and more like work. I KNOW!

However, it hasn't really started yet, so I have nothing to report on the house hunting yet. Aren't you thrilled????

I am so excited about meeting fellow blogger and his wife today for lunch. So excited that I am awake at 7am. Okay, a migraine woke me up. But I am still seriously excited. And I will probably go back to bed for a nap once my pain pills hit and this blog is done. But still... so psyched!!!

When things are on my mind and then I dream about them, I don't know if it was a chicken or the egg thing. Were they on my mind causing the dream or did I dream about them causing me to think about them? Does this happen to anyone else?

Yesterday, while at my mom's friend's house on Super Soul Sunday on OWN Oprah pulled out an interview she did with Deepak Choprah. He is a doctor who was an MD that just wasn't finding the answers he was looking for in traditional medicine and started looking in alternative medicine. Turns out that that there are LOTS of answers there. Shocking, I know. Right? At that time, I think he was promoting his book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. I know I have all the words. Could be in the wrong order. Anyway, it was fascinating.

There were several things that I took away "hard" from that interview (meaning that they really hit home). The first was that the body perceives every emotion about something the same way as it does the action itself. So, in my case, I spent three years wrapped in daily anxiety to the point that they were causing excruciating migraines over what to do about my marriage. The thing was my SPIRIT already knew what I needed to do: get out. It was toxic. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be having these horrible migraines. Why did it take three years of migraines that debilitated my health so thoroughly? I believed in the vows I said, yada yada yada. However, my SPIRIT knew that it was killing me and tried to tell me. Anyway, the worry about what to do.... Do I stay? Do I go? That was as bad as the divorce itself. And that was terrible. As anyone who has been through it can tell you.

Another example, every time you relive the awful thing your former spouse did to you, you might as well be right back there. The body/spirit doesn't care about what is actually happening. All it cares about is your emotion to it. So, if you stay stuck on something for ten years, you might as well as have never left it. Another example: if it takes you two years of worrying about whether or not to get a surgery, you have done yourself more harm than good. You have essentially been in that surgery for two years. The body doesn't care what IS, it operates only on what your emotional state thinks IS. Our emotions are more powerful than we understand.

The doctor talked about a study that was done with some type of carcinogen (or other toxic food) that was given to lab animals. I think rats. Anyway, as expected almost all of the groupings died. Only one grouping survived. Maybe they were hamsters. Not sure now. It was such a bombardment of information. Anyway, what made the difference for the surviving group was that before they were fed, the scientist picked them each up, held them, petted them, talked to them, and loved on them. That difference changed how that food was processed. What was toxic turned to something non-toxic in their bodies.

The lesson about food for you and me is to never eat while we are angry, according to Chopra. That will make even good food toxic. Better to skip the meal. And never eat with people that you do not like. Our bodies respond to so many things on a cellular level.

Well, I will try to write more later this week. I know there is more rattling around in this brain. I am just not thinking of it. Plus, I will be able to report on my fascinating meeting with fellow blogger, JJ, The Disconnected Writer. That, all by itself, is something to look forward to reading!