Inspiration

I watched a most inspirational movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" over the weekend and I felt rather deflated after the fact. I related with the most negative character in the movie.

'Jean Ainslie' felt completely displaced and out of her comfort zone throughout the entirety of the movie. From looking at the condo that they could afford if they stayed in England, to finding themselves in a dilapidated hotel in India of all places.

It was as if Jean's lines came directly from my subconscious mind. When I am in a strange, new world I hunker down within the smallest confines to acclimatize myself to this adjustment. Jean spent a great part of time reading within the safety zone of their hotel.

The 'man that she has been looking for' her whole life turns out to be gay. When her husband finally releases his pent up thoughts (as he has been optimistically looking for (and finding) the bright spots within their new environment) the words came right out my past. It was uncanny. I was once accused of stealing the joy and happiness out of someone's life ...

Jean was uncomfortable within her own skin. It is likely that she would have found happiness and contentment anywhere at that point in her life and their marriage. She was not comfortable with who or where she was, nor was she comfortable within her relationship with her husband.

I would like to write Jean's sequel. She would find her way after divorcing her old life. She would find herself and her happiness within. She would live an unremarkable life but be remarkably happy ... because she found herself. At last.

In a movie that was so completely full of inspiration and quotable nuggets of words, I gravitated towards the character that I know as well as I know myself. The person who is most comfortable within a life that she knows. To be plucked up and placed in a foreign country where absolutely everything around her is foreign? When she wasn't happy to start with?? Not a happy place for her.

The most quotable quote within the movie is Sonny Kapoor's mantra -  "Everything will be all right in the end and if it's not all right, then it's not yet the end."

I truly believe and aspire to live those words.

If it is not all right ... then it is not yet the end. It is time to look for a new beginning. Even if you don't get it right the first time, you will eventually. As long as you don't stop trying.

Because ... as Evelyn says, "The only real failure is the failure to try, and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment."