“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Godspeed Pictures, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #wherehopegrowsmoviehttp://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV”
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to preview a super inspirational and touching movie called “Where Hope Grows.”
It is a movie about redemption, faith, love and hope. It was exactly what my heart needed.
“Where Hope Grows” is about an ex-baseball player, Calvin Campbell, who is also an alcoholic and pretty much ruining his relationship with his adorable teenage daughter. While grocery shopping, he bumps into a kid named Produce who has a disability, Down Syndrome to be exact, and is intrigued by how happy he always is. They end up slowly building a friendship, and through that hope, faith, & love abound.
There were many touching moments in the movie, (even a touch of romance) but a moment that really got to my heart was when Campbell asked Produce, while shopping at the grocery store,
“How Are You Doing?”
Produce answered:
“I’m Doing Good, Even When I’m Doing Bad, I’m Doing Good.”
Oh be still my heart. My heart just melted when he said that because it reminded me of my sweet nephew who has autism–what one would consider a disability. Over the last year before my sister put him on a special diet, he had severe tummy aches. You could tell he was in so much pain, and he would stop his day to cry out, but then his little resilient self would go back to what he was doing and in no time his smile would com back. Even when he was doing bad, he was doing good.
My nephew is 4 and really amazing when it comes to learning to speak well. Every time I see him I’m amazed at his communication skills. That phrase above, the one that says “Even when I’m doing bad, I’m doing good,” I can just hear my nephew saying that someday when he is older because that is the type of human being he is growing into. Thanks to the great love of his parents and our great God, he has this smile that just never quits, and a heart that is just full of joy. Oh how I love him…can you tell?
I learn so much from my nephew’s resilience, and I learned much from this movie.
I’ve been struggling quite a bit the last few months with physical symptoms related to medications I have to take due to my cancer history. It has been really, really rough and continues to be on certain days. I have not talked a whole lot about it here at the blog as it has just been too raw to do that yet, but I do talk a lot about living new and living well here at New Nostalgia and although I am doing my best to do just that, I sure needed the inspiration this movie brought. It was a beautiful reminder that optimism goes a long way, that choosing joy is possible when you have faith that God will work all things out for the good of His children, and that redemption is always offered no matter what ones’ life looks like or feels like.
If you too, need some inspiration, or just want to see a movie that is uplifting and joy-giving, view the movie trailer below and make sure you check your local theaters for availability and showtimes and go see the movie! The movie comes out May 15th.
At the very end of the movie, I was struck with what was said. They were talking about how life is meant to be lived and how there are dates on a tombstone that everyone will have, we will all have a start date and an end date, but we also all get a dash. We must make that dash count. We must live, really live.
Here’s to living, truly living, in the dash!