I recently saw Sandra Bullock’s new movie Premonition on a flight between coasts. When you see it, you can’t help but feel a overwhelming sense of gratitude.
It made me think of Gone with the Wind, where two people who love each other can’t seem to communicate. We painfully see their ‘missed’ exchanges, like two ships passing in the night and after seeing the ‘missed opportunities’ every night thereafter, you’re left feeling helpless, helpless but knowing. All knowing.
When we reach that place, where we can no longer communicate and beyond….connect……with the people we love, we are living a life that is obviously no longer present, no longer alive. Fear takes over and strangles us. We find that our lives are suddenly driven by it.
Fear begins to alienate us from present energy and in its place comes a series of mundane actions that many couples do after years of marriage. No longer lovers, they have become roommates in a transactional world, one which no longer gives, no longer feels.
These transactions get the job done, life done…So life gets done, and we can even be proud by how good we are at getting ‘life done.’ Hour after hour. Day after day.
Present energy we no longer know. How blessed we feel whenever a charged conversation, movie or book reminds us to never let our lives move beyond the present and into the transactional. If we do move into the transactional, we need to know that this too, like all things, is a temporary state.
It’s never too late to move our lives back into the present, where love drives who we are, not fear. A life where we are not living anyone else’s life plan. It is ours to create, ours to live. And when we remind ourselves of this truth, gratitude re-appears.
It interjects, it overflows and in this moment, there’s no turning back. Joy and serenity becomes big. Grandiose. Serenity and joy becomes us. And we, them.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
