Buzz and Woody 

 '...you've got a friend in me.'

Buzz and Woody have shared many experiences together and both toys made compromises, if not sacrifices for each other.

Good friends... but they didn't begin that way...

The trials of their times, each having a turn to swallow a piece of humble pie and accept their own shortcomings was part of their bonding process.

Not all friendships are the same or serves the same purpose. Each friendship brings new challenges and experiences.

 One of my favourite experiences was developing a friendship with a friend I never imagined would be my friend.  Just by having so many differences, different approaches to life I stubbornly and arrogantly never saw this person as a possible companion. Until one of the hardest and saddest days of my life saw me helpless and somewhat hopeless. Guess what was the most helpful thing I needed? A friend that had skills, intersts and an approach different to my own. Forever thankful for the gift of love I was given that day and for the realisation that acompanied it.

Maybe friends really are just people we don't know yet.

Can you feel the love tonight?

Childhood friends reaquinted as adults, love blooming and blossoming.

Feel the love...to really feel the love and acknowledge it seems like an almost obvious response to its presence.

After all why else are we seemingly obsessed in chasing this magical experience. When it appears do we soak it in, breathe it in, be in that very moment? Or do we sadly sneak a peek and let love just pass by in the haste of busy living. 

Be grateful and respect its presence.

In doing so we may begin to notice other places and ways love blesses us. Opportunities arise to be and act with love. We see different forms of love, as romantic interactions, family support, sibling companionship and the most precious as childrens pure and gracious offerings.

Feel it, see it, be it.  x x x

Beast

While it is true...you can't always judge a book by it's cover, sometimes you can.

The beast looked like a beast as he was under a spell for acting like a beast.

However,

 just because he was seen as a beast that didn't mean he was destined to stay a beast.

Belle was brave enough to see inside the beast's heart and love him. He learned more about himself and saw himself through her eyes.

Soon his loving actions enabled others to see him in new light.

Mary Poppins.
'A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down'

Assumingly, I always thought that the spoonful of sugar was to help swallow a nasty dose of remedy. I'm thinking about how 'sandwiching' a constructive feedback between two generous compliments is pretty much par for the course at the moment. Say something positive, slip in the room for improvement tip and and add another positive something.
 That is one kind of spoonful of sugar. 
 Only problem is - it implies that the construcive criticism is something uncomfortable and something to be endured.  When really it is just our conditioning and inner beliefs of not being good enough that make it so.  Constructive feedback really could be 'medicine' designed to heal, help and nourish us to a better state of being. Perhaps if it is offered from a good intention, receive it so!

Aladdin -  the diamond in the rough.

Aladin continues to dream big. Sadly though he is disregarded and viewed by the palace guards as nothing but a street rat until the day Jafar discovers he is the 'diamond in the rough'.  A pure of heart person able to enter realms foreign to him.
Would you know a street rat from a diamond in the rough?
I wouldn't either so maybe...
we should presume and treat every person as though they are the diamond in the rough.

I am so inspired by Ariel.


                                          
Really who is so willing to believe in love and trust in it so much to give up everything. 
To have a chance at love she...
moved out of her comfort zone - in a big way.
She moved out of her community, away from her family, left behind her status (she is King Tritan's daughter) and landed in a foreign place, of foreign customs as a vulnerable stranger - without material security, new to walking on legs and without a voice.
So trusting of her fate she negotiated a trade with the sea witch for three days of living on land with legs instead of fins and without her voice.
At first glance it seems like a disadvantage not to be able to speak, however as blabbers we often overlook the subtle truthful ways of real communication.
Sometimes more can be communicated by less words. 
Sometimes we speak purely to fill an empty space, we speak to fulfil a social obligation, we sometimes use words to make ourselves feel worthy and important as we ohh so knowingly go on and on about what we mistakenly convince ourselves is true.
Often it is just a thoughtless habit as we speak as a way of running from the wave of emotion that rises in us unrelated to the now. Others unintentionally touch on our deep feelings, rather than watch them and acknowledge their presence and their origins we flood the space we share with selfish actions by sharing something that is actually our own business. 
We could just listen. Really listen and be in that loving space purely for the enjoyment and love for another. Lets leave ourselves and that sea of muck out of the interaction.
Ariel did and through trials and tribulations she eventually did share the joy of having her Prince Eric - kiss the girl!'
                                mwah.

Dumbo

Dumbo.

Dumbo suffered terribly, believing too much in the short sighted mockery of others.

What if things are exactly as they were intended?  What if we are not only good enough but exceptionally designed?

Dumbo's big ears were his gift, not his curse.

They were what allowed him to bring magic, awe and beauty to so many.

Singer Macey Grey was reportedly teased for her unusual voice throughout her school years. Her voice is now (and always has been) her gift to us all.

Love you for how miraculous you actually are, not in they eyes of what other see, only for the whole picture as it continues to unravel. The next chapter may hold someone believing in you so much it convinces you to believe you can fly, sing, create, be! 

It may be a chance coincidence to discover something about yourself you never knew you never knew!

It may be practice that refines a quality or skill that is unfolding. Be it, do it,have it!