One of my all time favorite musicals is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This musical somehow makes kidnapping romantic! Set in late 1800s Oregon, six backwoods, mountaineer brothers kidnap six local townswomen because they want to make them their brides. They are motivated by the story of the "Sobbin' Women"....a retelling of the Roman legend of the Sabine women being snatched away from their homes to be wives to Roman soldiers. A lovely scene in the movie is, after the women spend the Winter pent up in the cabin and shunning the brothers.....the scene breaks to Springtime and love is in the air! Flowers are blooming, chicks are busting out of their shells, farm animals are giving birth, alas the entire earth is bursting with promises of life, love and overflowing abundance! The unimaginable and seemingly impossible has happened. Those same townswomen are now blissfully in love with their kidnappers! They don't see uncivilised brutes who took them from their families. They suddenly see passionate men who loved them so much they took matters into their own hands to insure that they got their women! With Spring came a new vision and a new perspective.
Well, guess what?! It's Spring and our little community is bursting with promises of life, love and overflowing abundance after a Winter of cold weather, dire economic news, and the completion of relentless political campaigns! Have you fallen off of your New Year's resolution? Fret not! Spring means a fresh start! Just start over, throw off the cold rainy haze of Winter and embrace the new day. Did you resolve to exercise only to find that after a couple of weeks of high intensity motivation, you slipped back into your nonexercise routine? Don't worry about it! Spring gives you a second chance to just start over, and let that unproductive guilt rinse away with those April showers. Did your diet make it until Valentine's Day, and you ended up riding down that chocolate slide into past unhealthy eating habits? No problem! You get another chance and to be honest, if you blow that next chance there are countless more chances that you get! Is the perpetual barage of bad news bringing you down and stressing you out? Turn it off! Go outside, take a walk, go to Lake Lure and lay on the rocks soaking up the sunshine, or just sit on the porch old school style and nod to the cars driving by.
Spring allows, prods, and to be honest, URGES us to restart and to regrow. Learn from the past missteps and then start over with a new plan and a new motivation, forgoing the self remonstrations that we feel obliged to burden ourselves with. Poems have been written and songs have been sung about starting over, about messing up and just getting back up and at it again. One of my favorite songs on my MP3 player is by a ridiuculous group, Chumbawamba....It's called, "I get knocked down (but I get up again!)" and the it never ceases to motivate me and give me the kick in the pants that we all need from time to time! With that blaring in my ears, I feel tough and unstoppable! So blow off the dust from your rose colored sunglasses and embrace the new day and new opportunity. Spring bestows upon all of us the opportunity to restart, remotivate, and hey, if you want, reinvent your way of looking at yourself and your goals. I leave you with a snippet of Chumbawamba goodness:
“We'll be singing
When we're winning
We'll be singing
2x
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down”
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