Disney Pixar's UP

If you haven't seen this Disney you are missing out. There really are some great kids movies! Very creative and with great messages! After a busy week I love snuggling up to my children and watching a good movie together.

When we first saw "Up" in the theaters, my sister and I lost it and started crying. Who does that? We then began crying harder because we were laughing so hard for crying in a kids movie. Anyways, back to my point. There is a beautiful love story wrapped around an adventure that captures a deeper meaning for this life.

This couple meet when they were young children and become the best of friends and later get married. When they were kids Ellie shared her dream of wanting to go to paradise falls one day. She makes a scrap book to put all the pictures of her adventure in for when they finally get to go there. Their whole lives they saved to be able to take this adventure, but financial obstacles kept preventing them from getting there. They are now old, and he finally works it out to get the tickets. As he is taking her to their special place to give them to her she becomes ill and has to go to the hospital. Soon after she passes away. You can see he has lost his will to live and is so sad that their dreams never came true. (This is only the beginning of the story) The rest of the movie is a great adventure as he flies his house in search of "their" dreams to paradise falls.

In the end as he is contemplating and holding on to all of his past memories and feeling like he has failed, he opens up Ellie's book that she made when they were children. Thinking it would be empty, he is surprised to see that it is filled with pictures of them growing old together. From when they were children to right before she passed. At the end of the book she thanks him for the adventure and tells him to go find another one. Which he of course does, and changes a little boys life.

We all have dreams and aspirations, which is good. But I think its so important to remember that the best part of our journey is the ride. All the adventures along the way. We all want to grow up to be something great, make a change in this world, find success, feel of worth, follow our dreams..... At the end of the day you may not have reached your "paradise falls" like you thought, but you will be great to someone, you will change someone's world, you will have found success where it counts, and you are always priceless to our loving Heavenly Father. Our souls worth comes from far more than how much we have in our wallets... it is wrapped up in our day to day adventures and struggles and how we choose to face them. Don't let the obstacles get you down but lift you "Up". Take those opportunities to refine your soul and show the world what you are made of. For Ellie it didn't matter if they ever really made it to Paradise Falls, she just loved every little moment that they had trying to get there. We could lose all that we have tomorrow so cherish every moment today and enjoy the ride, loving all who come in your path.

Marjories Hinckley in "Small and Simple Things" states

... The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead...