A Life Lesson from my Favourite Film ...

I came home from a long and somewhat exhausting day ... it was a day filled with a mixed bag of fun, and work ... I drove home with the stereo blasting and arrived feeling exhausted ...

After cleaning up the mess left in the kitchen by the kids getting their supper ready, and tossing the laundry that HAD been out on the clothesline for the deluge/downpour this afternoon, into the dryer ... I headed into the living room to see what Noahkila was up to ...

He was settled in on the couch watching the dvd of my favourite movie Cinema Paradiso ... I arrived as the now blind Alfredo tells the young man Toto who had just come back from service in the army to GO and never look back ...

The exchange is as follows:

Alfredo: Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born. But now, no. It's not possible. Right now you're blinder than I am.

Salvatore (Toto): Who said that? Gary Cooper? James Stewart? Henry Fonda? Eh?

Alfredo: No, Toto. Nobody said it. This time it's all me. Real life isn't like in the movies. Life... is much harder.

Alfredo then tells Toto to go away from the village and NEVER look back ... he ends his comment by saying to Toto, "I'm tired of hearing you talking ... I want to hear them talk about you ..."

Toto went and never came back until the funeral of his old friend Alfredo ... a journey where he confronts his past and finds his future ...

Change is inevitable ... small towns will never see nor embrace change, and those who understand the necessity of change and growth must, like Toto - LEAVE and never look back ...

It's a hard lesson ... but a necessary:

Let go and live in the present - be the person you are meant to be ... leave the past where it belongs ... and never look back ... hold only to that which will strengthen and fulfill you, let everything else go ... it's a lesson worth heeding ...

I know I'm trying ... one step at a time ... one moment ... one breath ...

Oh, and Noahkila announced that he understands why this is my favourite film - "it's amazing!" he said !!

Tha's my boy.