Spoiler-free review for Brave

Psalm 11

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹ I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
    “Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
² The wicked are stringing their bows
    and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.
They shoot from the shadows
    at those whose hearts are right.
³ The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
    What can the righteous do?”

⁴ But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
    the Lord still rules from heaven.
He watches everyone closely,
    examining every person on earth.
⁵ The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.
    He hates those who love violence.
⁶ He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,
    punishing them with scorching winds.
⁷ For the righteous Lord loves justice.
    The virtuous will see his face.

This is what I read the night before I saw the movie Brave, a Scottish Fairy tale about a Princess whose mother wants her to get married as is tradition in Scotland, home to waterfalls and rich forests and lore.  Beautiful animation by the way.  And inspiring Scottish accents.  But Merida isn't ready.  She's only about fifteen, I'd guess (dangerously).  And she doesn't want to get married.  PERIOD.  But what she is good at is archery and that is what she hopes to use to keep her hands out of men's.  In other words, to keep from getting married.  She is as good as Robin Hood at the bow.  But she's really not supposed to play in the game for her own hand in marriage.  Getting into trouble for struggling to keep out of marriage because she's not ready, Merida runs away to the woods to be alone for a time.  This is when she follows the wisps - small blue spirit-thingies - ... for who knows what may happen, or Who may help her keep from getting married.  Things get bad to worse, and someone or someones may die.  There's an evil bear on the loose who kills easily and won't be killed easily.  But there is also a good bear and three black cubs that help out in this story, but be ready for a surprise.  And don't critique the movie because of the surprise plot twist. It helps the tear jerks near the end.  Don't worry, there's a happy ending!  Don't keep that in mind though as you watch the movie and the end may have a bigger effect on you.  

Listen for the beautiful soundtrack Brave has to offer.  I think I may want to buy it.

Beautiful and inspiring and scary at times, if you like fairy tales, you will like this ROMANCE FREE fairy tale.  There isn't a Prince.  But there just might be a sequel coming.  I wouldn't blame them.  I wouldn't half mind actually, because I just want to go back to Scotland.  Accents, forests, waterfalls, MIST.  
Also, if you like the Wingfeather saga, you will like this movie.

Some things that were in the trailers weren't in the movie.  They changed the story a lot over seven years.  From lots of snow scenes to a few snow scenes, there was a scene on a snowy mountain where Fergus, Merida's dad was on a black horse that may or may not have been Angus(Merida's horse) in the trailer, but it wasn't in the movie, or maybe I should have watched all the rest of the credits to see if there was a special scene at the end.

The first scene in the forest was SO inspiring (made me want to write my book), and the short film before the movie was good too, so if you go to see Brave, Get there Early, Not Late.  If you do you may miss the best.  Oh and in the trailers they played the trailer for the Hobbit so if you want to see that on a BIG screen bigger than You, get to Brave early and get the full experience.  The movie Brave does have good morals in it - get along with others, and - know that a good parent cares for their children, and that there are consequences when children stray.

But younger children may have nightmares after seeing the movie so... you may want to take more mature children to the movie.  They'll probably understand it better anyway, and won't be as much of a distraction to other people who are watching it.

I felt like I had been spoiled because I had watched all the trailers and stuff, but really I hadn't been spoiled too much and got surprised.  I want to see the movie at least two more times in the theaters.

Anyway, comment down below and tell me your thoughts on the movie(even if you haven't seen it).

God bless you!

Everything Made New

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

 Revelations 21:1-4

My sister is home again, and it is so odd, it feels like it was a dream that she was ever gone.  And she hasn't changed over the twelve days being gone in our dream land, England, Scotland, and Ireland.  But she ever so wants to go back there again, and take us with her.  And I'd love to once my books are finished.

Our church Youth group, which has been called the Edge for ten years, was shut down for a month.  There had been holes in the walls, lights that didn't work, and furniture that had holes in it so white cotton had been picked out of it and stuffed back in by the teens during small groups.

Today was the day we came back.  I was welcomed in by fellow teens, and I slowed my pace so that I could look around.  Everything was clean.  Black paint shone on the walls with a little shine.  Some of the steps to the second floor which had previously been gray, were now light blue.  One wall was red, most else black.  Things were rearranged, so differently.  Then I went into the auditorium.  They had a new fog machine, for there was fog everywhere.  I smiled.  We went to the front and began singing to God with the music of clean guitars and shining metal drums and keyboards, and young singers my age and older.  Something felt new.  It was as if our purpose was renewed.  The Lord's house was mended.  We felt even more reason to thank our maker.  It was dark, but only so that the lights could shine on us and warm us and help us know the contrast between the two.

I want God to make me new, continually.  He has already done so when I accepted His Son, but I want Him to make me new, with peace and joy and love like a rushing river, a bubbly fountain, and a raging ocean.  That living water flows in my spirit's veins.  I hope you are inspired by this to be new yourself, not to change your personality; nay, but to change how you act, to be more like Christ, His love, His Joy, his peace.  We are called to be peacemakers and yes it will be hard but it will be good when we do make peace.

We are called to love one another even if they are our enemies.  Don't villains love other villains who are nice to them?  And also, we are called to use the Joy of the Lord as our strength, to encourage one another and make them laugh, for laughter is good for us.

God encourage you and give you strength. :)

I wish it would rain again.  Well, you never know what may happen.  Perhaps it may snow as I have been wishing for ever since winter left us.

God bless you.  :D

 

   

Journeys, Spiritual, Virtual, and Physical

Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people. ⁷ And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil^[c] spirits. ⁸ He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler’s bag, no money.
~Mark 6:6b-8

My sister left for a college tour of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which is twelve days long in all.  I couldn't go because I didn't have the money and I still had school to do.  The day after she left was my birthday, the first birthday I had without her. :(
But I will have my own journey, putting down my burdens at the feet of Jesus, and letting him take care of me.  I know he has something wonderful for me.  I think it is joy, but I had to let go of the burdens before I could hear him.
I am sleeping in my sister's room while she is gone, and it is peaceful, almost as if she is here.  The reason for me sleeping in her room is because I am painting my room to make it look like Ireland, the Emerald Isle.  My birthstone is an emerald, so that makes the dream to go to Ireland even more important.  It is like I am destined to go there one day.  My father once went to Europe, so it isn't impossible.  I may go there with me family one day, once I finish me books and edit them and self-publish them.  That way I will bring them along with me to give away.  This will show that I'm not writing for the money, but to touch people with another world.  That would be so cool if the very first place the books were sold was in Ireland.  
Anyway.  There is this one game called Journey that looked epic.  It is a ps3 game(sadly I don't have one) and is only a download game.  You have to download it from online.
But it begins in a beautiful desert, smooth sand everywhere, and someone who is beginning a journey.  No words, no violence.  Just a journey to the top of a beautiful mountain.  People have cried as they finish it.  The soundtrack is amazing.  The ending is worth it.
The game only takes up to seven or eight hours to finish, they say.   
I wrote eleven pages straight in the third/second book of my series.  I haven't found the perfect name for it yet.  Chosen Royals, royal Chosen, Royal Fairies, Royal Faerie Chronicles(ooh, that's cool), something.  Ink drop Chronicles.  Royal Faerie Tales.  I don't know.  The Fading Stories... no.  Greenvine Manuscripts, no.  I'm trying to find a name that sounds good in an American accent so that it doesn't have to be said in an English accent in order for it to sound cool.
Royal Flyers, Royal Revelations... I'm just brainstorming now.
If you have any ideas, just post below! 
God bless you on your Journey. :)
 ~~Em.

Unique Things

1 Corinthians 7:7
I wish everyone could be like me. But God has given each person a different ability. He makes some able to live one way, others to live a different way.

Everyone says I'm different.  I'm unique.  I have a vast personality.  I can be both talkative or shy.  I can speak too much around people my age or attempt to say nothing at all for as long as I can when at home for an experiment.
When I speak too much I'm trying to fit in too much or I'm just talking about things that I think about a lot.  What's a girl to think about when she doesn't talk to anyone but Dad, Mom, and older sister except briefly on Tuesdays(band), Wednesday night(church), Sundays(church) and Thursday(piano lesson)?  I suppose that's why I find something to be excited about(a movie for example) and stalk that movie relentlessly by scavenging every trailer, clip, featurette, and tv spot, looking online every day to see if there's anything new, till it comes to theaters, then ask parents every other day if we can go see it till we do. *sigh*
Then sometimes when I've actually gotten to talk with friends for a long time, when I get home I find that I started to talk like them.  When I'm at home though, I talk with a Scottish accent whenever I remember to because I've been trying to pick it up by listening to Scottish accents from people on Youtube, like David Tennant or Scottish movies(lol).  It is so strange how we talk to everyone differently.  We talk to our parents differently then how we talk to our siblings, and we talk to our friends differently than we do to our family.
And the quakers set out to talk and treat everyone equally by talking in King James English with the thee's and thou's.  I read a Sisters in Time book called Janie's Freedom and it has quakers in it.  Great book and series for historical fiction fans!
Anyway, we are all different.  We were made to be unique.  We aren't supposed to copy everyone else!  God made me to be Me, not for me to be someone else.  God doesn't make copies, I don't think.  He never does things the same way twice.
We aren't supposed to copy others.  We're just right the way we are, and until we can become confident in who we are in Christ, it will be hard for us to grow up.  You know how most grownups have confidence?  We should have confidence ourselves, whatever age we are, in who Christ made us to be.  If we know that we are precious to him and trust him to protect us, and if we ask him to help us become confident, he will help us to be bold as lions.  We will be like David, who was so confident in God as he stepped boldly forward to challenge the giant.

Just as we should be unique, we should not copy ideas from other books to put in our own writing.  I know this may be hard to do, especially if you have already done so.
Some people say that there is no such thing as originality and that if you twist ideas from other stories, it will be okay in your own books.  But we should not do so for every single plot line of our books, or we won't exactly be writing anything that wasn't already there.  We will be writing a mixup of books that others have probably already read.
There are many cliches; reading minds, going to another world from modern day earth(which has been done infinitely since Narnia, though I am doing just one twist on it and I won't write from that plot again once I do), dwarves, elves, and dragons(although I wanted to put dragons in my book, and almost put elves and dwarves in them because the books are fantasy).  This does not mean you cannot use them... but you may want to consider weaning your books from unnecessary cliches in your plot/world.
Look for a new kind of plot, something you dream perhaps, something you hear in a conversation, something you see in the beauty of a forest, a unique character you see within the imaginative eyes of your mind.
I believe that there are still original ideas out there; many of them!  We just have to go find them. :)
I learned how to spin thread from wool yesterday, and it gave me an idea for a small scene in a book to write, I'm not sure which one yet.
I hope this post inspires you to write something new.
 God bless you and Happy Sunday!

A Pure River

Hallo. :)  I didn't begin this with any intentions in mind, so I'll just put a verse here and think till a 'what' comes for me to write upon with purpose.  That may not make sense at first, but I like the way I worded it.  A 'what' is a thing.  A something.  Anyway!  Playing with words I am.  Get to the point.  The tip of the mountain.  Climb.  Quest.  Write!

"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. ⁴ They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. ⁵ There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever."
Revelations 22:1-5 (New King James version)


I always find that those sentences have a beautiful fairytale feeling to them, the ones in Revelations.  A river clear as crystal.  There are actually descriptions in the Bible!  Some beautiful writing at that.  God gave the writers the ability to write the books in a way that would be best.
A pure river.  It must be pure.  It must be perfect, for God is perfect.  He is pure.  Love.
And heaven is not a physical world.  It is a mixture of physical and spiritual, for our spirits shall have a new body when we go there, or our physical would die of the contrast of the human flesh(which is self backwards with an H, I realized this moment), and the perfection of the King of Unearthly Light.  Think about that.  A light that is brighter than anything on this material world.  Even if we were saved, if we were to see God in all his perfection, within our own physical bodies, we would drop dead in a split second.  Our bodies are still of the flesh.  It is our spirit that is saved. :)

And since we have been saved, we must not at all continue to sin!  Which means we need to put God first.  Remember, that was the first commandment.  To put God first means to put the King of Love first, which means to act in love, and so it is related to the commandments that are above all, Jesus once said.
And we cannot stop sinning unless we stay with God.  Keep his thoughts in your mind.  His laws.  Not just his laws, but the love that comes with them.  Keep his peace in your mind.  Think of heaven.  Be a peacemaker, although it may be hard. 
"...Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..."
Just think!  No stress in heaven!  No nervousness(well, maybe some but that would be normal if you were about to meet God up there), no sickness!  No darkness, but unearthly light all around that is brighter than any on earth.
And if we bring peace from heaven to earth.....  and stay in it, meditating on scriptures throughout each day, thinking about them and their meaning and how they will affect our lives, it will make the light within us greater in this world.
For we cannot be a light to the world if there is no light within us.  It is impossible.  There is no Light that can be found in darkness and no darkness within Light.
No one can be pure without God.  We must ask him for his help.  To talk to him and ask him to tell you things in return, is good.  But whenever you ask God to speak to you, you have to know that he will reply.  Take a step of faith.  Trust him.  Trust in him.  He is watching you with his amazing eyes of love, wanting you to spend time with him at this very moment.
I have finally found a name for a song I have written on the piano, and my teacher has encouraged me to write my music down on sheets, and so I have begun.  The name, is "Steps of Trust".
The more you delight in the presence of God, the more he will give you the desires of your heart.  Come to his banquet and eat of the wisdom he has prepared for you, in his Letter to you.  My pastor once preached about this, that people would starve themselves of any spiritual food till the end of every week, on a Sunday, or a Wednesday, or a Saturday night or small group.  When he finished, I was given an idea for an allegorical story in the likeness of a fairytale.  I am not sure how long it will be.  But whenever I think about it, I think of an epic movie to be made.
A starved girl in the rainstorm, running in soaking ragged dress, running through the woods, down an old stone path nearly overgrown with moss and grass, to bang on the wooden gates of the King's castle.  Coming in, eating at a huge table, alone, with the King serving her.  The girl, savoring each wonderful bite that healed her bit by bit, soaking up wisdom till she was beautiful. Then the backstory came.  A city of darkness where she came from.  Her mother killed by people consumed by darkness and hate.
Perhaps I shouldn't have given all away.  It isn't fully written yet. ;)
One day.
Be at peace, all of you.  There is a purpose for our lives.  We just have to pursue it.  None of us will ever be fully pure on this earth, but when we get home, we will become so, shedding our rags in exchange for a white robe of purity.  I will sleep this night in the arms of my Lord.
Goodnight. :)
The best is yet to come.
     ~Emilyn J Wood

Next to Nostolgia; a mystery

 Merry Easter everyone!  I'm in the middle of a mystery.
I'm looking for a word.  A word that talks about a feeling.  Not the feeling of love or any of the fruits of the spirit.  Maybe joy, but it's a mysterious joy that you get...  inspiration?  Perhaps, but not exactly.  Not suspense, but almost suspense.
When you read a book about another world for the first time.  A brand new world that's so different and beautiful and has exciting good characters and morals and so forth, one that you haven't done research on, but have just picked up without reading any reviews or looking up the website for the book.  A book that you have never seen before.  It might not be a book that you haven't seen before but anyway... like the book, "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness" for example.
I was at Mardels when I spotted the book.  Dark blue with a picture of sea dragons on it.  It gave me a feeling of darkness and fear.  When I read the first chapter, there was a folk song within it about a black carriage that would come in the night and take children away to the unknown dark place.  A boy who prayed that it would pass the house and not stop.  It didn't stop thankfully at his house.  He had heard a story of a girl not far away who had been taken by the black carriage and never seen again.  Sarah Cobbler.
Everyone else would get the same feelings as they read it but in different forms because we think of different things when we read.  Our imaginations are different from each-other's.  We associate different thoughts with different thoughts.  Like for instance, if you couldn't sleep well at night because of nightmeres.  Whenever you heard the word 'night', feelings of fear would enter you because you associate the word 'night' with 'nightmares'.
My sister taught me that!  lol she's learning interesting things in college. 
Anyway!.
And then in the next chapter of the book OtEotDSoD(haha, long abbreviation), the characters are shown and their silliness and storytellish and folk and sweetness.
And at the end of the book, all those feelings you get as you read each chapter are mixed together when you think of the book.  HAHA!!!!  I was just ranting and it just came to me and I wrote it down.  Is there a word for that?  The overall feeling you get when finishing a good book or skimming through memories?  I should make a word for it....
Anyway, PLEASE COMMENT because when I tried to describe it to my sister she didn't understand... and she's older than me.  I think that now that I've written it down, it might make more sense.
So yeah.  Please comment.
God bless you!  He is Risen!

Tolkien's World

Friday the 16th, I went to a lecture where a professor was speaking about Tolkien, CS Lewis, and mythology.  It was very interesting and engaging.  I had already known some of Tolkien's life from reading some of the biography by Humphrey Carpenter.  Tolkien was born in South Africa, and his father died when he was four.  Tolkien then went with his older brother and mother to England, where they lived in the beautiful country.  He had memories of large hairy spiders, which made their way into his books somehow.
Tolkien's mother converted to Catholicism against the will of their family, and because of this, no one supported them.  They barely got by.  But a kind Catholic priest helped them and became a father figure to Tolkien.  Tolkien's mother died when he was about twelve, tragically.  I remember reading that Tolkien went to see the play Peter Pan when he was about that age, and he wrote in his journal that he liked it very much.
When C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien first met at Oxford, they had a disagreement.  C S Lewis liked the Faerie Queen(a very old long long epic poem, actually a series of five books that are all poems), and J R R Tolkien didn't.  There were a few other differences that made them avoid each-other for a long time.  Then they realized their similarities.  They both liked 'Northernness'(this is what they called the type of stories they had liked to read.  The Norse mythology and such.  Norse means North).
J R R Tolkien had a very big part in helping 'Jack'(C S Lewis) become a Christian.  Although 'Tollers'(a nickname for J R R Tolkien) was disappointed in him.  This was because C S Lewis had not become Catholic(lol).  Then came the Inkling group which was very influencing to their future writings.  
The professor spoke of the morals in the Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit, and he spoke of Lewis' life.  C S Lewis was Irish.  By the way, happy late St. Patrick's day! :)
But anyway, the last third of his speaking was about mythology itself and what it was and what it had been before.
Tonight I watched The Fellowship of the Ring, the whole Extended version.  I observed it in the light of the author and the imagination Tolkien had.  I want to read the books.  And I shall.
And I want to read about Amy Carmichael.  She herself was Irish, and wrote many inspiring books.
Farewell, readers!
Goodnight.  May God bless you and give you peace.