Tammi's Take on "Julie and Julia"

I must confess. I don't go to very many movies, but I'd been anxious to see Julie and Julia since the first time I saw a preview back in July. A film about a wannabe writer who blogs? They had me at the trailer! I finally got to go last weekend, and I'm so glad I did. Like a scrumptious meal, it was well worth the wait.

Though not a foodie, I am a self professed girly girl who loves a good chick flick, and for me this one had many of the irresistible ingredients that make me want to buy the DVD as soon as it's released: Shabby Chic decorating (reminiscent of Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, also by Nora Ephron), a really sweet guy (as in personality and eye candy), and a plot that takes the writer along on two women's journeys toward personal and professional fulfillment. The bonus? Though there is some strong language and there are a few sensual scenes (rated PG 13), the former is mild by today's standards, and the latter is between married couples (no nudity) who actually adore and are committed to one another, flaws and all. How rare, refreshing and truly romantic is that?

The movie is based on the autobiographical novel by Julie Powell about her real-life as a government secretary by day/aspiring author by night. Julie feels her life, and especially her writing career, is dull and bland so she decides to literally spice it up by cooking through Julia Child's classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie's Julie/Julia Project involves her doing just that during the course of a year while whipping up a daily blog about her ambitious culinary endeavours. All 527 of them.

Cooking had always been a hobby for Julie, and was something she was relatively good at, but following 9/11, it had begun to serve as a de-stresser from her job dealing with the tragedy's aftermath. When she takes on her 365 day project, her pastime evolves into a passion. Much like her invisible mentor, American icon Julia Child, prior to discovering the joy of cooking, Julie's life lacked direction. The goal of cooking and writing about it provides both women with much needed purpose. And more than a pinch of that missing zest.

These heroines live out their cooking/writing destinies five decades and an ocean apart, and both do so in two of the world's most fascinating metropolises (Julie in 21st century New York City and Julia in Paris during the 1950s), yet they are drawn closely together by their parallel projects. Viewers are treated to insightful glimpses into each woman's trials and triumphs in their relationships with friends, coworkers, colleagues, family members and spouses. We see not only the differences and similarities between two women with similar names, we see the commonality of the female experience - trying to find our place in/leave our mark on this great big world. With a healthy and liberal dash of humor and a sprinkling of McCarthy era political intrigue stirred into the mix, Julie and Julia serves up a delectable winning recipe and makes it a movie de resistance!

One of the things I love most about the movie is how it demonstrates how having a project or goal to focus on can be powerful.

For both women discovering a gift and then fully exploring its potential, changes their lives. Cooking allowed them to channel their creativity. Writing allowed them to share what they learned from it with the world.

Near the end of the movie Julie tearfully says, "Julia saved me." I can relate. For two and a half years following a malicious divorce and custody battle initiated by my abusive ex-husband, I was without creative purpose. The time I could have spent writing was wasted being angry, bitter and depressed. Last year, I picked up my pen/ laptop again. ; - ). In many ways writing saved me. But I know it wasn't the gift of writing that saved me, it was the Giver of writing that did. He saved me from my sins when His Son died on the cross for me. He saved me from myself when He restored my desire to write. Writing allowed me to channel all of my self-destructive hurt and pain from my abusive marriage into something positive. It allowed me to redeem it. It also restored the joy of my salvation and my joie de vive!

What are your God given gifts? Are you using and sharing them to glorify Him? No matter where you are in life - content and fulfilled, bored and restless, or in a personal/professional malaise - if you tap into the creative resources He's placed within all of us (writing, cooking, sewing, singing, playing an instrument, painting, photography, scrap booking, party planning, decorating, gardening, and the list could go on and on), if you savor and cultivate them, then channel them into a project for His purposes (i.e. encouraging and teaching others, pointing to the Creator of all things beautiful, extending hospitality, creating memories for loved ones, meeting the needs of those less fortunate than you), like Julie and Julia, and like me, you may be amazed at the feast of blessings He prepares for you.

~Truly, Tammi

Adventures in Blogging

I must confess. This is my first blog post ever. I've finally been rustled, if not bucking and kicking, then at least with heals dragging, into the 21st century. Actually, I did embark on this adventure - blogging - intentionally. You see, I've never been "techy", so the thought of trying to create my own blog terrified me. So much so that it rendered me practically paralyzed when it came to getting started. Though I hold two degrees, am successful in my career, and consider myself reasonably intelligent, I was at a total loss as to how to begin. But I desperately wanted to go on the journey.

In a round about way, that's how the idea to hold a Blogging for Beginners workshop was born (I suspect our teacher kindly named it that after hearing me repeatedly refer to it as Blogging for Dummies). My writing group M.A.C. (Middletown Area Christian) Writers http://www.middletownwriters.blogspot.com/ normally meets once a month at a church. Last week we trekked into new terrain, the Kidd Coffee shop http://www.kiddcoffe.middletown.htm/, to learn blogging basics.

Geared up with laptops and lattes, our posse anxiously waited for our fearless leader, Donna Shepherd http://www.donnajshepherd.com/, who is a self professed blogaholic, to guide us into the Brave New World of Blogging. She gave a brief history on the blog (short for web log), explained its uses and benefits, then had us identify our purpose for blogging and our targeted audience.

I was thinking, Wow things are going so well, when Donna announced, "O.K. Now you're going to start your own blog." Just like that? That's when things went downhill. And that's when all my fears came rolling toward me like so much tumbleweed.

Until that moment my laptop screen had been showing my homepage for the first quarter of the meeting. The minute Donna spoke those ominous words, the "Cannot display the web page" message reared its ugly head, as menacing as a rattler in the desert.

Why God? I cried inwardly. I've been waiting for this class, I asked Donna to hold it, and now my Internet isn't going to cooperate? I struggled to hide my frustration as my peers gleefully went screen by screen, tab by tab, question by question through the process of lassoing that dream of creating a blog. While I was being left behind in a cloud of dust.

A lovely newcomer to our group took pity on me and tried to help me log on, Donna encouraged me to take notes so I could figure things out at home, and one of my MAC partners, who'd been unable to bring her laptop, stayed faithfully by my side after I abandoned my traitorous computer and went around looking longingly over the shoulders of our friends.

But I couldn't learn that way! I needed to do it myself! Close to tears, but nowhere near ready to surrender or wave the white flag, I asked the male barista (who stood behind the counter, wiping it down and watching our proceedings, like in a scene from a bad western) for assistance. And as I prayed and desperately attempted to log on to the shop's connection, the Lord heard my cry, had mercy, and answered my plea.

If a Most Wanted sign could be placed over my life, to indicate what I most want out of it, it would read: TO LEAVE A LEGACY. My writing is my legacy, my way of pointing to Christ, of leaving His mark on things, my offering. That's why starting this blog means so much to me. Yes, I want to build a web presence, an audience, a following - but for His glory, to increase His territory. The Reward? Hearing Him say, "WELL DONE."... Priceless.

Fellow MAC Writers, Stephen Curtis Chapman said it well, "Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze -Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace -Let's follow the leader into the glorious unknown - This is life like no other - This is The Great Adventure!"

Come on - This is what we writers were created for- Get ready to ride!

My first foray into the blogging frontier is Dedicated to Donna, who loves alliteration. This week when I was published for the first time, http://www.ispiredwomenmagazine.com/ she told me she felt like a mama bird watching her baby fly and said she knew there would be more flights in my future. I'm ready to go discover all the new horizons that are just waiting to be explored. Thank you Mama Bird for not only teaching me the basics of blogging, but for giving me writing roots and wings.

To view our newly created blogs, please go to the M.A.C. Writers link above.

~Truly, Tammi