DO YOU HAVE A SPARKLE?

today i, for the first time, watched

despite what you may or may not have read in the reviews, i give this movie two peggy thumbs up! i LOVE that it's a really clean family friendly movie with no "potty humor" additives to "make the kids laugh." and i am really starting to fall in love with this up and coming writer/director ZACH HELM, who was also writer/director of another favorite film: "stranger than fiction." good writing. great directing. can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

of course because this is where i am in my life and brain right now, i saw very significant lessons at the heart of this little story that resonated with me... shall i tell you what they are?

alright, follow me into peggy's parallel land!

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mr. helm starts off his story introducing us to a character named mahoney. played rather sweetly by natalie portman. the narrator (who is also mahoney's 10 year old friend, eric) begins by explaining that:

"when she was younger everyone thought she was a musical genius, a brilliant pianist. and she believed them but now, as she became a grown-up, she wasn't so sure i don't know why grown-ups don't believe what they did when they were kids i mean, aren't they supposed to be smarter? what mahoney needed was the opportunity to prove to herself that she was something more than what she believed"

mahoney, apparently has fallen victim to that disease that many of us eventually succumb to as we grow up... that fear that we really aren't all that great at the things we love to do.

rubbish.

later in the movie, as mahoney is riding on the bus she comes across a sign that makes her stop.

it reads:
DO YOU HAVE A SPARKLE?

obviously the writer isn't asking us if we've brushed our teeth. he wants us to stop and think about whether or not we are fulling the measure of our creation or just living. he wants us to question ourselves as to whether or not we still have that same passion for the things we love, our talents, because when we submerse ourselves into those passions- we sparkle


so mahoney asks a friend. if when he looks at her he sees a sparkle... in attempt to make herself more clear she says

"[a sparkle] like something reflective of something bigger that's trying to get out"

he responds honestly with
"it might not be so much a sparkle maybe more of a twinkle?... a glint?"

so many times i look in the mirror at myself and wonder what happened to the sparkle i used to have. it's still in there somewhere... but like mahoney, it's more a twinkle or glint these days. it's like my diamond got a little dusty.

earlier in the movie mr magorium has given mahoney something very very special... a block of wood. he tells her that the key to all of her magic lies within the block. she doesn't understand... it's just a block of wood!

often in life doesn't it seem that what we are given feels like a block of wood? either it's as boring as the daily ins and outs that don't get much more exciting than who's going to win on american idol, or sometimes the trials we have to face may feel like that same old block of wood- keeping us where we always are, in a pit. but what if the block of wood has so much more potential than just sitting there being a block of wood? what if you could turn that block of wood into anything you want and make it exciting?

through the help of a friend:
"what you need to believe in... it's not the block of wood, it's not the store,it's not me.
maybe what you need to believe in... is you"



mahoney realizes that she was the block that just needed to believe again that she could be anything that she wanted to be, that a block of wood has potential to have millions of possibilities- as long as you believe they can be. and before she knew it-

SHE GOT HER SPARKLE BACK!

so here i am at this same place as mahoney. i had a few good friends point out that i was only twinkling. helped me to see that i needed to trust myself and believe in all the magical possibilities that my block of wood can be. i'm not 100% great at it yet. (even mahoney started out a little shaky) but i get stronger each time i believe just a little more in myself.

so what did mahoney do next in the story?



she created! she made magic happen! she brightened the world with the talents she has. all of her possibilities unfolded and now there was nothing to stop her.

that is the natural next step. a sparkle only works when you shine it on something. sparkles are meant to brighten others and we only get brighter the more we shine on!

okay so i am taking a cue from her- i'm going out, to create to make magic happen and watch the world become a little brighter because i am sparkling!!!