We like movies.  We really like movies.  Our collection could rival any collector in the US – or at least Illinois.  From The Jazz Singer to our most recent purchase, Moana – and every genre in between, movies abound.   Bond, Bourne, Reacher and Seven Brides all reside in our home.

My husband and I love reading and movies are just a natural extension of that world.  When our daughter started having surgeries and hours of therapies, movies kept her entertained and she fell in love with the story-telling art as well.

               BTW – we are a Marvel house, not DC.  Please do not make that mistake.

Quite honestly, Moana wasn’t my favorite movie in the theatre.  It was fun and made me smile but I felt sorry for what I thought would probably become a B-level Disney Princess.  I mean, she’s not Snow White or Cinderella.

Then I read why some moms really fell in love with her character and so I gave her another chance.  My goodness, I’m a Princess Snob!

And then I fell in love with her.  This amazing Moana.  I’m watching her as I write! 

If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the story line except to summarize this:  she’s a young girl on a journey to save her people.   Moana sets out across the ocean with a chicken and we hear her repeating a mantra, practicing what she will say to the demi-god she seeks to help her on her quest.

“I am Moana of Motunui. You will board my boat, sail across the ocean, and restore the heart of Te Fiti.”

Repeated throughout the movie is the Song of the Ancestors, and at her lowest point, choosing between failure and success, she begins to once again sing,

“I know a girl from an island
She stands apart from the crowd
She loves the sea and her people
She makes her whole family proud
Sometimes the world seems against you
The journey may leave a scar
But scars can heal and reveal just
Where you are

The people you love will change you
The things you have learned will guide you
And nothing on earth can silence
The quiet voice still inside you
And when that voice starts to whisper
“Moana, you’ve come so far”
Moana listen, do you know who you are?

Who am I?

I am a girl who loves my island
And the girl who loves the sea, it calls me
I am the daughter of the village chief
We are descended from voyagers
Who found their way across the world
They call me

I’ve delivered us to where we are
I have journeyed farther
I am everything I’ve learned and more
Still it calls me

And the call isn’t out there at all
It’s inside me
It’s like the tide
Always falling and rising
I will carry you here in my heart
You’ll remind me
That come what may
I know the way

               I am Moana!”

Honestly by the time she sings the last line, you are ready to jump up and sing with her!

Then Moana changes her mantra –

“I am Moana.  Aboard this boat, I will sail across the sea and restore the heart of Te Fiti.”

Moana confronts the evil of the her world because she KNOWS who she is!

The story does not require her to be rescued or saved;  to seek anyone’s approval or find a man.  Her success relies in her knowing who she is – she is daughter of the tribal chief!

She knows Who she is and Where she came from – what an amazing concept!

With if we began each day with a mantra –

“I am Kimberly.  I am daughter of the King of Kings.  In this life, I will walk through many beautiful and hard experiences.   They will not defeat me.  I have the Heart of the King!”

We must KNOW who we are – and who we belong to!

I think I shall begin each day with a mighty roar —

    “I am Kimberly!”

“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”  2 Corinthians 6:18.