So you all will soon realize that many posts in this blog are inspired by something I read, a conversation, or likely more often since I am a TV junkie-something I watch. I just finished watching the movie My Life in Ruins which stars an actress named Nia Vardalos I have loved since I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding some years ago. So anyway, the movie is basically about a woman who is unhappy with where she is in life-she has a dead end job in which she is not appreciated and no love life to speak of. Throughout the movie there is talk about her finding her “kefi” which I took the liberty to research for the sake of this post and it is as follows (source: http://gogreece.about.com/cs/glossary/g/kefi.htm) Kefi is a hard-to-translate word which has been described by various Greeks as meaning the spirit of joy, passion, enthusiasm, high spirits, or frenzy. This is the inspiration for my post. The movie ends with the character finding love, and embracing where she is and thus finding her kefi.
When commenting on her interpretation of her character for the movie, Nia Vardalos states that she does not know one person that has not experienced a moment of crisis and thought: “I don’t know what I’m doing”, “I don’t know if I’m any good at this”, “I don’t know why I’m alone”, “What am I doing with my life”. This character left America to pursue a dream job in Greece that did not work out and she then finds herself working as a tour guide. How many of us have taken a leap of faith to do something better, or take a stab at doing what we love only to hit a roadblock? So what do you do when things just don’t work out for you? What do you do when you lose your mojo?
She realizes at the end of the movie that one cannot plan life. Is this idea of taking things as they come, seeing the best in every experience, and relinquishing the desire to be a control freak the key to life?
As a woman that has had life lessons in how frustrating it can be trying to control everything and seeing the benefits of letting go, I must say I think the idea of finding one’s kefi and not trying to plan every little detail about life is key. I am as driven, ambitious and goal-oriented as they come. But I think sometimes we can expect so very much of ourselves that we are constantly disappointed. Sometimes those who become cynical in my opinion are really disappointed control freaks that see failure in everything. Now that is depressing. I would much rather live my life with kefi!
