Cherish Your Pearls

Hello World,

It’s confession time. I have to admit I’ve been having a bit of a pity party recently. I graduated college in May and a large part of me feels like I’m not where I’m supposed to be, not in a physical sense, but in an accomplishment sense. I was blessed to attend a college that demanded a lot from me. My Alma Mater, Warren Wilson College, gave me challenging academics, two jobs, the opportunity to be a crew boss, an active social life and a demanding service schedule.

Often my days would go from 7am to 2am and I thrived on it. I loved the feeling of constantly achieving. And so now I’m post-grad, working one uninspiring job, dealing with various family situations and unsuccessfully attempting to write. And in truth I feel sort of lazy and unimaginative. Thus the catalyst for my pity party began. Then it sort of overtook me, crept up and consumed.

Now this was my mental state about a week ago when I had the privilege of finally seeing the movie Begin Again. Begin Again centers around a down and out record exec whose about to throw himself onto the subway tracks when instead he stumbles into a bar and hears a woman sing a song. A song that inspires him to create music again and throughout the movie the two, who are both down and out in their own way, heal one another and allow one another to rekindle their passion for music. In turn they record an album all over NYC. It’s a great movie and here’s a clip of one of the songs in the movie.

 

And in adorable scene Mark Ruffalo’s and Keira Knightely’s character travel around the city listening to each others playlists. After this they compare life to a string of pearls and how for Mark Ruffalo’s character there has been more string than pearls lately, but then Keira Knightely’s character turns to him. She recognizes the moment and says “this is a pearl,” and Mark Ruffalo’s character adds (in reference to the experience of recording the album) “this whole thing has been a pearl.”

It was a brilliant moment, on because the writing was so good and secondly because it planted a thought in my mind. That moments can be pearls.

I didn’t think about it much more until a few days later I was lucky enough to attend the event Rock the Universe where one of my favourite bands, Switchfoot, was headlining. I watched them with my big brother, Nathan and as Jon Foreman sprinted around the stage belting out songs that have meant so much to me I was in bliss. Then between songs he spoke about the meaning behind many of the bands song saying “I’m talking about abundant life here my friends.”

Immediately after Switchfoot played my favourite song off their new album, “Let it Out.” An ecstatic Jon Foreman jumped to the front of the crowd, the music was booming, the crowd was singing at the top of their lungs, the moon was shining, and I recognized it. This was a pearl. So I hugged my brother and mentally thanked God for my pearl and that sustained me until my next pearl.

Which happened to be a weekend in Miami with my sister a couple of days ago. And the point of all this is simple; recognize and in turn cherish your pearls. It’s very easy to get stuck in our pity parties, trust me, but if we take the time to recognize and be thankful for the great moments a.k.a the pearls in our lives (no matter how small) as they happen, it will inspire us to get out of our slumps and go out looking for more pearls. Until we have a whole, beautiful string of pearls.