Life Lessons From The Parent Trap

"7 Pembrook Lane" also known as 23 Egerton Terrace

I'm currently watching a movie I haven't let myself watch in at least 5 years. This particular film is my favorite movie of all time. You might guess a classic, such as "The Lion King" or "Mary Poppins" (my other two top favorites). But no. My favorite film? The 1998 Lindsey Lohan version of the The Parent Trap. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have seen this movie, it's in the hundreds, minimum. I can still remember walking into the Disney Store and seeing this pale pink shirt with Annie and Hallie on it and BEGGING my Aunt Melanie to buy it for me. She did, and I wore that shirt until I physically could not get it on my body anymore because it was way too small. My cousin and I used to play "poker" aka checkers in my bedroom for my spare change, while listening to "Bad to the Bone" and I always had to lose because I was Annie, and she was Hallie. We had the handshake between Martin and Annie down to a T. I would often eat Oreos and Peanut Butter on October 11th (the twins birthday) My obsession with London grew once I saw this film, and I promised myself that someday I would go to London and find Annie's house. (fun fact: I did! :D)

So you are probably wondering if I loved the film this much, why on earth have I not allowed myself to watch the movie in so long? In short, my fear of pain and grief. During college I had a very, very close friend that loved the Parent Trap as much as I did. We could quote the lines back and forth to each other and always celebrated together with Oreos and Peanut Butter on October 11th. Heck, we even went and searched the streets of London until we found Annie's house together. Every moment of this movie makes me think of her. And here we are, may years out of college. This friend and I had a bit of a falling out a few years ago and while we still talk on rare occasion, our friendship is far from what it was while we were in college.

I've thought many times over the past few years about sitting down and watching this movie again, to let myself relive the happy moments of my childhood over again. And yet every time I tried it was clouded by the pain of losing this friendship, and feelings that I really did not want to feel. And yet, I have been on quite a journey over the past few years, but the past few weeks have especially resulted in growth and moving substantially forward. As I listened yesterday to the That Sounds Fun Podcast with my good friend Annie F. Downs and special guest Mike Donahue from Tenth Avenue, they talked about one thing in particular: our Western cultures fear of emotions. He talks about how we have been trained to avoid painful feelings at all costs, and just ignore them. He makes a comment towards the end of the podcast and says "That's the cool thing about being afraid: now you have a chance to be courageous. You can't be courageous without being afraid." That hit me. Every time I am afraid, I have a chance to be courageous. And, I have the ultimate team captain named Jesus, who has already conquered that fear multiple times over. I have spent my entire life running from painful feelings, avoiding them at all costs. And yet recently I have decided that enough is enough. Life is too short to keep running from things. It's too short to never watch my favorite movie anymore because I might have some painful feelings come up regarding my old friend. There are so many adventures left to explore, and if we let painful feelings get in the way of those adventures we are going to spend our entire lives sitting on our couch never really living, just surviving.

So this is my random thought of the day for you: Don't let your fear of emotions hold you back from all that you can experience today. Let the tears roll, let the anger out, scream, cry, do whatever you need to. Those memories? Your fear, anger, stress, sadness, pain? It has NO hold on Jesus which means it has no hold on you. Will it be fun? No, it won't. Will it hurt? Most likely. But you can do it. And the next time and the time after that will get easier and easier with each time you face the pain from a new perspective.

Podcast Link: https://www.anniefdowns.com/2019/08/06/episode-157-mike-donehey/