We went to the ‘flicks’ and pizza this afternoon.  Always a treat.

 

In one of the trailers, Batman says to Robin – ‘life doesn’t give you seatbelts’.

 

My life has certainly felt that way this last 10 days, a car crash, a great big juggernaut smashing in to my blind spot… and no seat belts.  I have felt like life has been in slow motion and I am currently summersaulting in slow motion through the air, watching the debris and catastrophe happening below me, a bird’s eye view of events happening without having any control of the outcome, my trajectory or landing.

 

But despite my weightlessness, I can feel my anchors.  My happiness anchors in the form of my boys, always watching me with their big blue innocent eyes.  My strength anchors in the form of my oldest, truest friends, the Iron Ring are closing ranks, their steel like loyalty tightening around me, ready to catch me, prop me up when my legs threaten to give way.

 

The film we watched was Trolls… And as always, the messages in these movies for small people are profound and told in a beautiful way.

 

The Trolls are happy little creatures, brightly coloured, positive and beautiful living a life of happiness with singing and hugs at the heart of their culture.  They are threatened by the Bergens, who have been brainwashed to believe they can only experience true happiness by eating a troll.

 

As some of the trolls are captured by the Bergens, Princess Poppy starts on a quest to rescue them, but in doing so falls in to a trap and ends up putting the entire Troll community in danger, as they are sent to be eaten by the King Bergen.

 

As she realises her Kingdom is collapsing around her, she loses her positivity, her joy and her colour, sparkle and smile :  ‘The world isn’t all cupcakes and rainbows after all,’ she declares and her vibrant pink turns dull and lifeless.

 

Because her light fades and her colour diminishes, so does that of all her friends.

 

It made me cry silent tears in the dark as I held my goddaughter, for I feel like Poppy.  And yet I don’t have the luxury of letting that show in public, in front of my boys.

 

Of course, the film has a fairytale ending..  Out from the back of the troll crowd comes one of the trolls, previously the only cynic to the hugs and singing….

 

‘Hey you with the sad eyes… don’t be discouraged’ and it was JT singing to me, with my BFF holding my hand and her two gorgeous girls snuggling in to us, feeling the moment.

 

My true colours are still there, even while I am feeling grey and black, black and blue from the crash.. and as the film’s message repeats many times:  Happiness is inside everyone – you just need the help to find it’…

 

And my girls and boys today helped me do that, I smiled, I laughed, I loved and I showed my true colours … (and I felt like eating).

 

 

 

You with the sad eyes
Don’t be discouraged
Oh I realize
It’s hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small

 

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

 

Show me a smile then,
Don’t be unhappy, can’t remember
When I last saw you laughing

If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there

And I’ll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow

 

Can’t remember, when I last saw you laugh.

If this world makes you crazy
And you’ve taken all you can bear
You call me up
Because you know I’ll be there

And I’ll see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors
True colors are shining through

I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow.