The Bear and I went to see Avatar in 3d Christmas evening with our children, grandson and a couple of young friends…Although we had advanced tickets Daughter #2, who had gifted us all with tickets, wanted us to get to the theater a couple of hours early so that we could get good seats…in the Middle, Middle…the best place to get the full effect of the 3d. She had already seen Avatar in L.A. and loved it so much she wanted to share it with her family…We did get our Middle Middle seats….


The first thing up was a recruitment video for the National Guard…it was almost futuristic in it’s glorified attempt to add bodies to the war machine…it looked like an action movie were our team never takes a hit..

The trailer was a peek at Alice in Wonderland, the new Tim Burton movie…It’s going 3d ….There are going to be a lot more 3d movies now that there are enough theaters with the capabilities to show them….I can’t wait…I love the movies and 3d is awesome…


Avatar was visually stunning and so much fun…3d is not gimmicky any more…not just things flying out towards like in the early days of 3d…instead it puts you more into the action which, of course, this movie had a lot of…The 10 foot tall blue indigenous “people’ of Pandora and the land they live in are stunning….you want to stay forever running and flying with them through their sacred forest among the magical flora and fauna.

You can even ignore the story and still have a good time. But Avatar has a good story line…It has it’s political statement, and it’s a love story and a war story….It’s part live action and part cgi…Neyliri the heroine, my favorite…is played by Zoe Saldaña and is all cgi but I believed she was real…

Even if you’re one of many who only views movies at home I recommend going out and seeing this one it just would not be as rich watching it at home in 2d.…The movie has something for every body. ……even a strong spiritual message…but it’s long, almost 3 hours so you want to go to the most comfortable theater near you.

My movie tip for the year.

....life.

On October 26th babies Phoenix & Haiven were brought early into the world via an emergency c-section. Neither baby weighed more than 1 lb 12 oz…very, very tiny. And their skin so paper thin that I could actually see their hearts flutter.
They had all their finger and toes…and in my mind that meant that they were going live happy, blessed lives because I knew they were in a hospital where they would receive the best of care.

I had no idea, none, of all the many obstacles they would face each and every minute, and the many milestones they needed to meet.

In the neonatal ICU world of lights, beeps, buzzers and numbers on a screen, every second seems like victory…yet you are constantly reminded of how everything is so precarious…
little lives with such a thin cord holding them to us.

It is amazing how quick and easy it is to fall in love with such innocence, it literally happens in a flash of light…babies come into this life as pure love no matter the circumstances. I fell in love as did everyone who was touched by them during their brief time on this plane.

Phoenix, the big brother, left rather quickly…just under 3 days… a little less than 72 hours…We put all our hopes in the Haiven…a lot of hope for such a little boy. He survived heart surgery, and so many changing of tubes and procedures, imaging’s and different combos of medicines to keep infections at bay…and as the 3 week milestone approached we had reason to be hopeful….but his little body experienced a sudden flurry of things that simply went wrong and his parents made the heart wrenching decision to let him pass over.

I have a friend who says they never came to stay…that they indeed were little angels who brought us their gifts and quickly went back from where they came.

We had an Honoring for them.
Ritual is good……
the babies parents were showered in love, compassion and empathy…
they went through so much heartache,
friends and family stood witness to their pain and loss..…
We walked a labyrinth with paths of painted flowers and lit candles in thanks to Phoenix and Haiven for bringing more love into our lives and for bringing us all closer together.

I have asked myself why???? one thousand times.
This has been a crazy with grief, sad time, for everyone who had their hearts opened and softened by the birth of the tiny spirits that were Phoenix and Haiven…our angels. That is the gift they brought an opening up to make room for more love…a bigger, stronger, connection to the people we love…
They softened us towards each other, gave us a greater capacity for compassion.


Right now we are all so tender, the sorrow still comes in such big waves…unexpectedly, totally without warning. As with all pain, time heals…
I know this too will pass, leaving us more in touch with our humanity….closer.