Tea and a Movie

When I arrived at my friend Diane's house on Friday......she had "Tea" waiting for me.

I was thrilled when I saw how she had prepped the little table that we were going to eat at while we watched the movie she had wanted me to see so badly. I had never hear of the movie but it was very good and I absolutely enjoyed it.

It was called......"Ladies in Lavender" staring "Maggie Smith and Judi Dench."
I had never even heard of it before.
It was a VERY interesting story line and great ending.....it had one cuss word in it so I want to warn you because of course...it was the
"F-BOMB." Why they had to have that one word in it don't ask me....ugh!

This was such a special treat of a day. Even though I was SO tired that morning and would have liked to stayed home. I enjoyed myself so much.We had home made "Chicken Salad" over lettuce.....and a very good "Lemon Honey Tea" by the Republic of Tea, then for dessert....."Mini Cheesecakes" that Diane had made.

We even had a "Special guest".....look closely.....it's a little Brown Bone China Duck. I had bought Diane a box of "Red Rose Tea" one day and this was the "surprise" inside of the Tea. I looked high and low for this tea because I had heard of the "Bone china figurines" they had inside of it. And low and behold.....I found us both some boxes of it at a "Winn Dixie" near my home.

The day went great and we had a great time....

I have to tell you though....on my way home.....I was sitting in my truck stuck in traffic on a highly congested road not maybe 8 minutes from our house and was "rear-ended" by a car.
I couldn't believe it.

Long story short....ugh......I had damage to the bumper and the jar of the impact threw my lower back out and when I got home I immediately laid down on the couch and iced my back and went to sleep for a while.

All in all.....life is still GRAND and I am not going to complain because we have always been "over comers." And this will pass..
Even though it does get a bit wearisome at times!

The next few days are very busy for me....my younger son has to do some special "Dyslexia" testing for college....and I have to meet with my R.A. Specialist and the Research Group that wants to possibly have me participate in a new "Drug Study." I am praying for wisdom on that thing.

Miss Priss has to go to Alabama on a school Field Trip this week too....and she is still in a lot of pain and achey....I am a tad concerned about this so hopefully she will be okay. She just took a huge ice pack to bed with her. Ugh. Italian Boy's knee is still hurting him greatly so he has a Dr.'s appointment to see about that tomorrow.

Hopefully all will be well around here soooooon. We need a break! HA!

I will be back as soon as I am able to. I wish you all well.
Cheers!!
Joyce

"The Wretched Ones, The Poor Ones.....Les Misérables"

Nothing discernable to the eye of the spirit is more brilliant or obscure than man; nothing is more formidible, complex, mysterious, and infinite. There is a prospect greater than the sea, and it is the sky; there is a prospect greater than the sky, and it is the human soul.
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
French dramatist, novelist, & poet (1802 - 1885)

I SO love this story.

It is a tale about nothing but passion and forgiveness.

In fact.....it's purely a story of "forgiveness AND UNFORGIVENESS." "Justice AND INJUSTICE."

You really can't really have one without the other....in either case now can you?

When you have "injustice" many times there will BE "unforgiveness." It's a rare thing when it isn't happening.

Let me assure you though.
It's a GOD thing when it doesn't happen.

We watched the movie last night. We were going to go out to do something but decided to stay home and relax. It had been a busy day for both my husband and myself.

He asked what did I want to watch....it was going to be "It's A Wonderful Life" because I have this entire "stack" of Christmas "MUST WATCH" movies.
And we aren't quite through the stack yet.

Then Don opened the drawer to our TV cabinet and said...."let's watch something else" to which I said....."fine what do you want to watch" and the first thing he called out with a question was "how about Les Misérables."
To which I quickly said......"YES!"

We hadn't viewed it in years so...I was up for it. Plus then Don was "backpedaling" and wanting to watch some gory thing like...."The Gladiator" which he and our boys LOVE. Not happening. They watch it ALL the time on TV. Blah! I can't stand it any longer. Enough of that Maximus guy already.

I settled into my spot on the couch as he popped the movie in and the story unfolded of "Jean Valjean" the man who had accomplished some amazing things in his life despite tragedy and severe injustice during "Pre-Revolution" France began to unfold.

Liam Neeson is AMAZING in this role.

His whole being is into this part. Plus I like Liam Neeson....he's the voice of Aslan in the "Chronicles of Narnia," He's Michael Collins in that story...He plays "Oskar Schlinder" in Schlinder's List.
Plus he's in a host of other great movies and some not so great ones.

I mean the man is excellent at his craft though.
Even though I CAN'T believe that he and Helen Miran used to be an item. Hummm....

Also...small "Joyce" trivia fact here,....Neeson is from a little town in Northern Ireland called "Balleymena" that I've been to.

The most vivid thing I can remember (besides what I was doing there in the first place) was that the town was purely divided.

They had entire what we would call "subdivisions" with "flagging or banners" similar to what our car dealerships put up....over the area where their homes were...of their political preferences. England or Ireland basically. Protestant or Catholic.
It was odd to me. I had never seen something like that at all in Ireland where I had been staying. But then....this was a "hot spot" in the North apparently from what we were told.

So I guess we know where he gets his "inner acting passion" from.

Back to Les Misérables....

It will encourage you to be full of forgiveness when you witness the POWER that forgiveness holds for you and for others.

One man in this story....changed many lives because of his forgiveness....but one man "Javert" changed no one... he only hurt people...could NOT forgive.....and it ruined him as he attempted to ruin others. In the end....he could not even forgive himself.

You will recognize injustices done to people in this movie and feel for them. You will see the "Wretched Ones and the Poor Ones and the Miserable Ones" and you will see how one man who was forgiven in return helps them to feel God's powerful love and forgiveness like he has.

You MUST get this movie and watch it.
It will impact you.

Let me know after you view it what you think and how it affected you.
Because I know it will.