Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

My grand daughter was over last weekend and she likes to watch the same movie over and over. This time we watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". After watching it a couple of times, I realized there is something about the movie that really disturbs me...

The movie is about a scientist who tries to solve world hunger. He creates a machine that will make food, but encounters a problem of global proportions. There is an accident, the machine goes nuts and then food begins to fall from the sky.

Big fat, juicy hamburgers fall from the sky....

Then eggs, bacon, candy, ice cream , pancakes, steak and other delicious food....

You might think that's what I find disturbing. Here I am restricting this type of food and and I'm watching a whole town of people eating tons of it without a problem. Even the Mayor goes from slim to obese right before our eyes. That is disturbing....

But that's not what's bugging me....

There is a scene where the Mayor decides he's going to spruce up the town and bring tourists to the remote island where they live. He unveils all his plans and as the last attraction is unveiled we see that it is a super giant glass fishbowl, filled with water and swimming inside is a sardine. The Mayor says it's the largest sardine ever, but it looks very tiny in this huge fishbowl. The Mayor is telling the crowd that this sardine will be doing some tricks for them ~ it will be jumping through a hoop of fire!

Well after hearing this, the look on the sardines face indicated that he did not think this was a good idea. You could see fear on his face. He did not want to do it.

So all is going well, until the scientists food machine goes crazy and starts to fly around dragging the scientist through the town with all its festivities. He and the machine eventually get caught up in the stand of the giant fishbowl. It bumps around the stand and finally the machine flies off into the sky.

Here's what bugs me....

The fishbowl begins to topple. It finally falls off of the stand and begins to roll away. Water is splashing everywhere and the sardine is rolling around and around inside the bowl. Finally is lands on something and begins to go in the air. The sardine is airborne and notices the flaming hoop of fire. He looks at it....and makes a decision to go through the hoop.


He goes for it and makes it through with a whoop of excitement!!!! And then, and then.....a seagull swoops in and eats the sardine!!! Augh!!!!

He went from fear, to determination to death...right before my eyes.

I have watched this many times and every time I see it, something in the pit of my stomach churns....I have been thinking about this for 3 days and this is what I've come up with...

The fishbowl is me. I'm transparent. I think I'm strong and can do anything, but like the sardine, I am afraid and fearful and everybody can see it (my fat is telling them). In January, I decided to take the bull by the horns and began taking steps toward getting this weight off and getting fit. I am doing it, I'm still on track, I'm having success, I am heading for the flaming hoop of fire...

And now I'm afraid to go through, because I don't want to get my hopes and dreams snatched away....by a seagull....no I don't want them snatched away from me, by life.

So I been fighting to hang to what I know ~ so afraid of the unknown. I have been willing to stay in the fishbowl and not willing to jump through the hoop of fire ~ because of fear!!!

BUT NOT TODAY ~ I am deciding today, that I am not going to succumb to this fear any more. I am releasing it today and I AM JUMPING THROUGH THE HOOP OF FIRE!!! Nothing is going to stop me!!!

Do you have fear? Are you willing to jump though the hoop of fire to get what you want? Think about it!!

Hugs!!

3 comments:

  1. I'm a new follower, but I'm excited to follow your journey! This was an amazing post. Just yesterday I began to think about how I'm afraid of success with weight loss/fitness. I love your analogy to the movie!

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  2. When I saw him jump through the hoop I thought he was going to land in the ocean. Granted he did get eaten. But think maybe about this. If we never decide to get over the fear and jump through the hoop, we may never see the ocean. We would be stuck in our bowl forever not realizing there was something better out there. My kids love that movie. Lots of things bother me about it. Great attitude about not letting anything stop you!!! I'm not going to let anything stop me either.

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  3. Great story. I thought the movie was stupid when I saw it but never even remember the fish bowl. now I have to go back and rewatch it.smile.

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