How much does your life weigh?
Tonight, during the opening credits of Up in the Air, Joel turned to me and said, "You know what I'm proud of you for? Slowing down enough to see the beauty of the world." And, so, before the movie started, I smiled at him and wondered of the places I've been - the places I'm going (tomorrow, a 10am flight to LA from Denver). What slowing down and unpacking the carry-on for the first time in my life has meant over the past year.
There's a line from the film I copied into my notebook, "Your relationships are the heaviest components of your life." As I left the theater I put parallel what Joel said about slowing down to see beauty, and what George Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, said about the weight of relationships. Two sides of the same coin, you know. The tragedy of knowing it will eventually end - every relationship into which we enter - is eclipsed by the beauty of knowing it.
Tomorrow, I fly. But I'll travel light as I always have. And I'll return knowing what I'm working on here has grown in my absence.
Home can be a still point in a moving world - when we allow it to be so.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Reader Comments (4)
That movie really resonated with me. Those relationships sure are heavy but pushing them away has the consequences as well. I'm lightening the things in my bag and carrying them on my back for 6 months on the AT, very, very soon.
Blessings to Joel for seeing and cherishing this gift of yours. I so love how your powerful expression in the world includes laptop yoga and a call for taking time for experience.
Intrigued by the idea of How much does your life weigh? Will want to see the movie, found the clip to be very provocative. For one thing, I didn't want to put any "stuff" in my backpack. Certainly "The slower we move the faster we die" is not a view I'm eager to embrace.
Thanks for piquing my interest in the film and yet another great post.
<3 Mahala
i loved that movie - and i totally loved that line, too.
(the part i loved best about the movie, i think, is that the ending was somewhat unexpected .. not totally happy, but not totally sad. lessons learned with a small consequence are the best ones, i find. they stick well because they resonate with reality, don't you agree?
I love this post :) I watched Up in the Air and it also had me feeling about the concept of home and what it means. It is definitely difficult to wrap your head around the fact that relationships have such weight...but at the same time are so dependent on others for the success. You can put your all in and still not affect the outcome 100%. But you are right in saying that home can still evolve in a changing and moving world. Beautiful post.