Finding Neverland

I just finished watching "Finding Neverland."  If you've never seen it, I would suggest renting it right now.  It is by far one of the best movies that I have ever seen.  And it's a little difficult for me to describe why.  There's just something about it.  In the movie, Peter, one of the main characters, describes the play "Peter Pan" as magic.  And I guess that's it.  The movie is magic.  

I think I've always known that there is this hidden place, like Neverland, that is just for me.  A place where everything is right, where I'm free.  A place that is beautiful and glorious and timeless.  And even though I know that such a place exists, I don't think I've ever actually been there.  But there is something about the magic in this movie that almost takes me there.  

And it's not just this movie that brings me nearer to this nameless place.  I sometimes get a hint of it in a song, or a sunrise, or a child's smile, or in a painting.  The beauty in those things reminds me that there is something even more beautiful that I haven't yet seen.  And it's when I experience these things that I long to go to that special place.  I long to shake off all of the vain and empty things in this world and go to this place where I was created to be.  But no matter how poignant the movie, or how beautiful the song, sunrise, smile, or painting, I can never quite get there.  And I'm just left wondering what it's like...

This is something that I wrote after I got back from Vietnam, and it was the first time that I ever put these ideas into words:

"I left Vietnam early, and got home just in time to see the caterpillars.  Now, home is not my house, or my town, or Chapel Hill, or North Carolina, or even the US.  Home is this place that I go to sometimes, and it's beautiful.  The sky is the perfect shade of blue, the grass is green, the flowers are bright, and there's not a cloud in the sky.  There's a tree on the hill, and the soft wind sings a symphony as it blows through the tall grass.  Whenever I go there I feel like a kid again, without a care in the world.  And I'm alone.  But not alone, exactly.  There's someone else there, too.  But I can't see Him.  I can't touch Him, or smell Him, or hear Him.  But somehow, I know He's there.  Somehow, everything that I see is Him.  And everything that I touch, or smell, or hear, is Him.  Every breath that I take... is Him.  And it's only when I lay there in the grass under that tree, taking it all in, it's only then that I realize that this is where I belong.  I am loved, and this is home.  He is my home."

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My heart is longing for a great escape

It's threatening to flee this crowded space

Something's telling me to jump

but everything else says no.

I've a restless spirit inside of me

And it's threatening to fly away with me

To a place I've never been before

But a place I almost know

So, I'm about to make my great escape

Leaving behind this crowded space

Something's telling me to jump

And this time I'm gonna go

And that restless spirit inside of me

finally taking flight, set me free

to a place I've never been before

but a place I almost know...