The Lion King is hands down my favorite movie ever. I remember watching it over and over again as a little girl and singing and dancing to all of the fun songs. And last night, Max decided we should watching it for our Sunday movie night! I can't even remember the last time I watched it and so it was even more fun to watch it again! Surprisingly I remembered most of the lyrics and had no problem belting all of the songs at the top of my lungs (which is pretty impressive because I usually can't for the life of me memorize song lyrics).
It was fun to reminisce about our childhood as we watched the movie too. I also thought about all the things I didn't quite understand when I watched the movie as a 6-year old Korean-American girl who was just learning English. Like I remember the first few times I watched the movie I didn't catch onto the fact that the reason why no one liked Pumba was because he had a lot of bad gas. They never say the word fart so it was kind of hard to catch onto just through a song bahaha. And then there's also that part in the song "Can you feel the love tonight" where it says vagabond and I clearly remember just making up a word and singing that part because I didn't know what they were saying :P And Sonhee and I would also always say "halmoni" (the Korean word for grandma) when they would say "in perfect harmony" in that same song as well. Man, we thought we were so funny and clever haha. [The whole English as a second language thing was real guys! #firstgenerationamericanproblems #thestrugglewasreal ;)] And I always thought the Pride lands were barren because Scar was evil and evil made everything die, but now it makes sense that with the coyotes there disrupting the food chain, how it would cause an imbalance in different animal populations. And then there are those little jokes here and there that I never caught onto as well, like "Mufasa? Que, pasa?" bahaha.
I always cried when Mufasa died every time I watched it when I was little, and without fail I teared up watching it last night as well. And then teared up again when Mufasa's spirit comes back to talk to Simba. And then for the first time I realized how many life lessons are taught in that movie. I mean, I always knew it was a good movie and taught good messages but it really hit me watching that part where Simba is talking to Mufasa's cloud spirit.
Mufasa: Simba, you have forgotten me.
Simba: No, how could I?
Mufasa: You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of life.
Simba: How can I go back? I'm not who I used to be.
Mufasa: Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king. Remember who you are. Remember.
I mean come on--can it get anymore churchy/spiritual than that?! The creators of the Lion King have to have been religious. But it's so true. When we forget who we are--that we are children of God, a king--we thereby have forgotten our Father in Heaven. And no matter how many mistakes we have made or how long it has been since we've made those mistakes, we can always go back to our place on the path to eternal life, thanks to our Savior and the atonement.
It's been my New Years Resolution to read the Book of Mormon for 15 minutes every day, and although it hasn't always been a perfect 15 minutes, it's really made a difference in my days. I'm also loving my calling as a Young Women's Leader. I've really tried to make it a goal to magnify my calling this year and giving more time to preparing for my lessons. Preparing lessons has been so great for my personal growth and learning this past year. The best way to learn is really to teach :)
Anyways, back to studying for my TBL quiz tomorrow... >.< oh the joy....
