A day in the life...

I had to take a few weeks away from the blog world.. and I have to say I missed it quite a bit... both writing and reading.

Isn't it amazing how blogs can give a little snapshot sometimes of our lives. We do so many things and have so many thoughts, and its wonderful to be able to capture those things. I recently came across a journal that I had written from nearly ten years ago. Wow.. so many things have changed since then! I was still in college and I had just met my husband. Going over that journal, there were things in there that I totally don't even remember doing... random conversations on a train, making paper with a friend, hanging out with my sis and finding a $20 bill on the street. Some of it vaguely came back to me, but in some ways I almost felt like I was reading a story of someone else's life. I mean I have a pretty good memory, but when you really think of it, the day in and day out things, we usually completely forget about. Sometimes I even think about this when I'm in the moment.. I have this thought that I won't even remember this day at all at some point in the future. 

Our lives are a story. Each person has a story and its that continuity of memory in order to know the complete story that is what I think makes us uniquely human. They say that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. I wonder if this is similar in our own lives. How well do we really know our own stories? What things in our lives do we keep repeating because we haven't learned the lesson the first or second time? Have we learned to be the hero or heroine of our own lives or are we living someone else's plot? Have we learned to see the beauty and originality of our own story and appreciate the amazing part that we get to play in this journey called life?

I just saw tonight the trailer for what looks like an awesome new documentary coming out in January. Its called Life In A Day and it is a global experiment to create a user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day: July 24, 2010. All the videos were made by thousands of regular people as they aim to show a day in their life. It is produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald (they are editing the videos and hopefully making it into something that makes sense :) )

Check it out:

Anyway, I think this is a fabulous idea because I love seeing and appreciating other people's lives and cultures. There are over six BILLION people on this planet and not a single one of our stories is the same. There is so much diversity in what we do, believe, in our customs etc. And yet at the same time I think there is also often so much that is similar among us that we need to learn to appreciate as well. I recently saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love with my mother, sister, and husband. At one point in this movie she is talking about the women in the refugee camps who just want to talk about their boyfriends/ husbands and how she is struck by the human longing for love, no matter what our circumstances and no matter where we are. I think most of us 6 billion are just looking for love, appreciation, and joy in the day-to-day. This may present itself in a million different ways... but really its all the same things - its just the packaging thats different.