The other day I was on my way home from a morning walk when I decided that I was going to take a break from all preparations and have a couch-potato day. With four rented DVDs, two big packets of chips, some Smarties and a 1.5 litre cool drink I snuggled under a duvet on the couch and watched one movie after the other. Three of the movies where boring to ok but the fourth one, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, was a gem. A group of elderly English people fly to India to live in a luxury retirement hotel, but when they get there, it is everything but luxurious. The film is about the young entrepreneur who runs the hotel and these guests and how everyone deals and copes with the situation and their new life. I want to share some quotes from the movie with you. Some are inspiring, some are thought provoking and some are just plain funny but yet so deep:
“I don’t think you are going to cope!” – “Well, let’s find out, shall we.”
“Trust me! I have still got it. – Just don’t find anyone that wants it!”
“I am single by choice – just not my choice.”
“[Life changes are] like a wave. Resist, and you will be knocked over, dive into it and you will come out the other side.”
“I did join a gym last year. It cost me a fortune but I did not get any fitter. Apparently you actually have to go.”
“When I want your opinion, I will give it to you!!”
“Love of my life! No more will I believe that I am not worthy; for only by loving you as you deserve will I become so!”
“Nothing happens unless first we dream!”
“Nothing here has worked out how I expected.” – “Most things don’t, but you know, sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff.”
“The only real failure is the failure to try – and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment.”
“The person who risks nothing – does nothing. Has nothing. All that we know about the future is that it will be different. But perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same – so we must celebrate the changes. […] Because everything will be allright in the end, and if it is not allright, then trust me, it is not yet the end!“
All of them but maybe especially this last one touched me deeply. I was going through some pre-event blues. My piggy bank was getting anorexic, I had a minor injury and my training was not going as planned, I couldn’t find accommodation for some of my courses, what will I do, once I come back to SA? I was getting scared of my own adventure! And then fate sent me this movie and pulled me up again. This trip will change me – I don’t know how yet, but that’s okay, I will risk it, I will face the future…