Sunday afternoon, my husband and I saw Julie and Julia. To say that I loved it would be an understatement. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Meryl Streep is brilliant, funny, and just-plain-great to watch. The movie made me want to go to Paris. It made me want to cook complex food (and maybe even try de-boning a duck). It made me want to really appreciate the food and the ingredients that I eat. It made me want to savor.
I don’t know about the real Julia Child, but Meryl-as-Julia savors everything. She savors her experiences, she savors her marriage, and above all, she savors food. Watching her enjoy herself, whether she is shopping for ingredients, sitting down to an incredible meal, or creating a culinary concoction in her kitchen, is to truly see someone who is fully in the moment and who is fully sensing and experiencing what she is seeing, smelling, feeling, and tasting. Julia eats mindfully and she embraces life with the same spirit. Julia Child is now definitely on that list I have of famous people I would have loved to have had dinner with.
Both Julie and Julia are so engaging to watch because they follow their passion. For Julie, finding a way to use the best parts of herself (her strengths) more and to do something that she loved and was passionate about, transformed her life. What an incredible example of how we can make things a lot better without doing a major life overhaul. She still went to work at a very hard job every day. She still didn’t like where she lived. She still fought with her husband, but when she set a goal that engaged her with her passion—and she kept taking consistent steps towards that goal, her life flowed differently.
Before I saw the movie, someone said—don’t go hungry. Well, I actually was pretty full of popcorn before the previews were over. But the one thing that I didn’t walk away from Julie and Julia with was an urge to overeat. It left me inspired to do a little more of what I love, to be myself, and to live the life I crave–not eat it. Oh–and it made me laugh–a lot.
Take good care,
Melissa
