Losing Your Virginity

Eyebrows shoot up; gasps of surprise and shock can be heard echoing over cyberspace, and dear friends immediately grab their phones: Wanda has delivered a shocker!

Hang on to your underwear people!

I have finished reading my very first Francine Rivers novel, which means I am officially no longer a Francine Virgin!

For those of you who love reading, and don't mind a thick 400 page book every now and again, you will understand that I immediately realized I was going to be sleep deprived when my sister handed me Redeeming Love (sleep deprived, because once I start, there is no way of stopping me!).

And the emotions running through my veins and heart was overwhelming as I read this beautifully heartbreaking story. The lump in my throat refused to budge and I had to force myself countless times to swallow really hard. My tears were dangerously close to streaming down my cheeks at least once every chapter, and frustration gripped me a couple of times when I realized the characters were heading down a very dangerous and slippery road.

But the hope remained. And the realization of redemption and healing dawned on me so overwhelmingly, I had to stand in awe.

Exploring the character of Angel made me realize that all of us are haunted by a past that we see no way out of. We are constantly reminded that we are not worthy, and that we are not strong enough to claw our way out of it on our own.

And once the character of Daniel was introduced, I instinctively knew that I wanted to be like him, without a doubt. And the answer lies in the Guiding Hand that brings these two together.

If you don't think you're up to reading Redeeming Love, all is not lost. Go and read the story of Hosea and Gomer. Hosea wrote it down, detailed and proud, as a testimony of the redemption and healing I spoke of earlier. You'll find it in the book of Hosea, in the Old Testament of The Bible.

Someone Once Said...

..and I forget who, so please forgive me: "The only thing wrong with life is that there's no Soundtrack."

This is most probably why I bought myself an iPod while I was still in London. The beauty of the public transport system over there is that it allows you to live your life to your own soundtrack without having to concentrate on driving a car (i.e. reality interfering).

Wait, I'm actually blogging for a completely different reason. I always read up on the movies or shows I'm watching, and I've always found www.wikipedia.org a good source of information when it comes to bullet pointed tidbits regarding my latest story-watching expedition.

Take the show 24 for instance (Producer: Sean Callery). It won a couple of awards for its soundtrack, so this fact prompted me to consciously listen whenever I was watching my daily 6 episodes. It's so subtle, but so awesome.

Prisonbreak (Composer: Ramin Djawadi), in my opinion, has the most gripping theme song of any show I've ever seen. The music quickens your heartbeat and causes shallow, short gasps of anticipated breath. Perfect musical casting.

And then there's the Bourne Trilogy (Composer: John Powell). I love exploring the bonus material on discs (which is why I'll ALWAYS buy the boxsets of movies and TV shows); so yesterday I was watching an interview with the composer of the Bourne Soundtrack in which he briefly explains his motivation behind some of the themes he had chosen for the movies. That's when I realized, as a viewer I most definitely don't analyse the soundtrack, BUT it makes an enormous difference to my reaction and emotional connection to the movie. Duh! I hear you say, but you'll be surprised how many people do not realize how important the perfect music is to a scene.

I could obviously list numerous movie soundtracks that impacted me: Pirates of the Carribean (Composer: Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt), Gladiator (Composer: Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt), Avatar (Composer: James Horner),The Village (Composer: James Newton Howard) to name but a few. And I promise you you'll recognize some of these names, because they're almost as famous as the leading stars in the movies.

Point is, don't ever underestimate a movie or TV soundtrack. Those composers are geniuses.