Every Road Leads Back

Moana is another beautiful departure from Disney's usual princess and damsels-in-distress theme. I'm happy to see this new trend in Disney animation. And Lin Manuel Miranda and his team are just the right people to lay out the music.  The music did not only set the background, but highlighted the theme in a profoundly resounding manner.

Three songs struck my core ...

How Far I'll Go

"I've been standing at the edge of the water

Long as I can remember
Never really knowing why
I wish I could be the perfect daughter
But I come back to the water
No matter how hard I try"

This reminds me of a discussion I had a year ago with our parish priest.  He said, that our generation is typically born into a role with a set of expectations.  

Pondering on this more, I realized it is true.  We had our lives laid out for us with everything planned out by our parents.  There is great focus on being the "perfect daughter" and doing what our parents think is best for us.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  Our parents have our best interests at heart and years of experience have made them truly wiser than us.  We do need their guidance. But, sometimes, because they want to protect us so much from failure and pain, they inevitably hold us back from forging our own paths.

"Every turn I take

Every trail I track
Every path I make
Every road leads back to the place I know
Where I cannot go
Where I long to be"

As a friend told me once, "there is order in the universe".  Life has a way of taking you right back to the right path.  You can run or hide from it, but God's plan for you will unfold.  And you will find yourself circling back to it, because there are things the heart knows much better than the mind.  Until you figure it out, you'll find your heart inexplicably drawn to it and circumstances will lead you right back to it ... over and over again.

"See the light where the sky meets the sea
It calls me
No one knows how far it goes
If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me
One day I'll know
If I go there's just no telling how far I'll go"

One day, when you are ready, it will hit you and you will find the courage to finally go and find out "how far you'll go".   When you let go and allow it to take you, the journey itself will feel like coming home.

How Far I'll Go - Janella Salvador (PH)

How Far I'll Go - Tagalog Version

I Am Moana

"Sometimes the world seems against you

The journey may leave a scar
But scars can heal and reveal just
Where you are

The people you love will change you

The things you have learned will guide you"

There is no guarantee that, when we go and walk our path, things will be easy.  The failure which our parents are protecting us from can and will hit us at one point or another.  Failure, afterall, is what builds character and pushes us to do things we never knew we were capable of.

"And nothing on Earth can silence
The quiet voice still inside you
And when that voice starts to whisper ...

Do you know who you are?

I am everything I've learned and more
Still it calls me

And the call isn't out there at all
It's inside me
It's like the tide, always falling and rising
I will carry you here in my heart
You'll remind me
That come what may, I know the way
I am Moana!"

When it is most difficult, that is the time to stand back and listen to that inner voice - God's voice within us. It is there, always within reach, guiding us.  It will not be silenced.  It knows the way. 

I believe that God planted His plans in our hearts. During uncertain times, trust that His plans are deep inside you.  In the deepest parts of your heart, you'll always find the answer.  When it is needed, help will come.  He will send someone.  Everything will come into focus and you'll know the way.  Just keep praying.  Stay in touch with that inner voice which holds the blueprint of God's plans.

I Am Moana

Know Who You Are

"I have crossed the horizon to find you
I know your name
He may have stolen the heart from inside you
But this does not define you
This is not who you are
You know who you are"

Failure and pain, sometimes, have a way of truly breaking us, bringing out the worst in us.  We find ourselves in a swirl, spiraling downwards until we lose sight of who we are and where we are headed. I have found myself in such situations many times and, without fail, God finds me.  Sometimes He speaks in the silence.  Sometimes He sends someone. Whoever he or she is, that person will find the courage to walk in the midst of that spiral to remind me who I am; a lifeline who will pull me up.

When I am able to accept the failure and transcend the pain, that's when the growing happens and I find myself emerging into a better version of myself (an upgrade!).

On a side note ...

Never steal a woman's heart and break it. (Bad idea).

Te Fiti (a goddess with the power to create life - represented by a mountain) turning into Te Ka (a demon that causes infestation and death - manifested in fire and magma, a volcano) is the perfect representation of a woman who's heart is broken.  She becomes untrusting, protecting herself by keeping everyone else at bay through anger or indifference. (Nasty!).

Know Who You Are

Art from ScorpiusClark