Each day, each moment, the world is filled with awful things. Abuse of power, people and money, hatred towards each other and ourselves and bad words and opinions of another person's happiness. No one addresses that's it's okay to forgive, live life and be happy. Today, I watched Disney's, Christopher Robin. I didn't watch it when it came out last year because A.A. Milne's characters were dear to my heart as a child. I watched and read Winnie the Pooh on a regular. My childhood best friend loved Winnie the Pooh, and I, myself was bound to Tigger.
As an adult, I still hold The Hundred Acre Woods as a place where I let go and be myself in the wind. See Winnie the Pooh reminds me of simpler times. Times where I hid from yard work in the bathroom with a book. Times where my biggest adventures, were the ones I went looking for. Usually in the neighborhood with my little brother following close behind. We were pirates, spies, and soldiers. Every day was different, even though the scenery never changed. Our imagination ruled our lives, somewhere along the way we lost that. We traded it in for CBS news and anxiety pills.
Today as my eyes watered as Pooh found a much older Christopher Robin, that the others mistook for a Heffalump, I remembered that sometimes you have to let go of the world around you and have fun. Meaningless fun that shapes and heals you from the inside. Everyone says that nothing heals like a good cry, but I believe that a hardy belly laugh heals sooner and deeper.
You know what heals my anxiety? The movie Tinkerbell! Do you know what helps my creativity? Cartoons and comic books. Going back to the things I loved as children always cause me great joy. Don't you remember that teddy bears give the best hugs, and toys spark imagination? When Christopher Robin remembered his joy, he found himself whom he thought he lost. All along he was just denying it and trying to keep it hidden in fear of what others would see as different.
In life, we get so wrapped up as adults in the worries of the news, the latest scandal, or working and paying bills that we forget to keep up with ourselves. Nothing will ever be perfect according to the matrix. We will never accomplish what we set out by following the rules, staying in predisposed lanes and boxes we never agreed to. We have to break free, color outside the lines, and find the joy in being unique.
I know, for my success I need to get back to the simple things because adding all the worry is not taking me very far. Tell me… how have you played today? 'Cause it's always sunny in Hundred Acre Woods when Christopher Robin comes to play.'
