Under the Tuscan Sun

‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ is one of my all time favourite movies.   I love the imagery of Italy. The houses built into the hillside, the cobble stone roads, the beautiful old architecture, the vineyards, and the beautiful landscape of Italy.  The story line is good too.  ‘Under the Tuscan Sun”, is about a woman called  Frances Mayes, who happens to be a writer – a writer with writers block, who suddenly finds herself unexpectedly divorced.  Her friends cash in their Tuscany tour holiday so that their friend could have some fun, cheer up and find some direction.   At first Frances refuses, but then she realises she needs to escape the pain of her heart-wrenching divorce and so she decides to go.

Along the way, Frances finds an old run-down villa and impulsively decides to buy it.   She feels that it would be too tragic to return to her old life in America, so Frances uses her settlement money to make a new home for herself in Tuscany.  She sets out to renovate her Tuscan Villa with her very limited English speaking Polish workers, finds some new friends, an old friend moves in, new family, happiness and the best part of all – Frances finds love again, and her writers block passes.  It’s a nice feel good romantic movie.

‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ is one of those movies that inspires change.  If you don’t like what your life looks like – do something.  Don’t just sit and dwell…get up and make your life what you want it too look like.  The character of Frances Mayes probably never thought that she would be the proud owner of a beautiful villa in Tuscany.  I guess it’s one of those situations where she was forced out of her comfort zone when her husband filed for divorce.  She had no plans to divorce.  It was this exact moment in life where Frances had to make a choice about her life.   Life seemed to have served Frances a large bowl of bitter lemons, but an unexpected Tuscany tour helped Frances turn those lemons into a beautiful fresh Tuscany styled lemonade….Let’s face it, if there was no divorce – there would probably be NO beautiful Tuscan Villa!

Now, I am not in any way thinking about divorce or separation, so hubby if you are reading this – we aren’t heading down that track – No way!  I am just pondering life and reflecting.

I have never gone over seas, so travelling is definitely on our bucket list.  We’d love to have our own ‘International Lampoon’s Keetley Vacation’ and travel through Europe, visit America and even possibly live somewhere different for a period of time. Anything is possible in life, but this wasn’t really about our desires to travel, its more about the concept of a massive life ‘catalyst’ – the unexpected ‘something’ that pushes you, or literally throws you into the arms of ‘the unexpected’ new direction.

In a few months I am turning 40.  I’m not sad about it, or perplexed.  I generally have good and positive thoughts about the idea of turning 40.   I am grateful considering there are many who don’t have the chance.  I am really grateful for where I am in my life, but I feel that turning 40 is in some way meaningful – as though there’s something really good just around the corner for us as a family, but for me personally!

I love what Drew Barrymore says about turning 40.
“It’s the first time in my life that my age has met up with where my life is, and it’s perfect. I love being 40, I always felt not my age and now I feel my age and I love it. It feels comfortable.”

I hope that I too love being 40 when it happens, I really want to embrace my 40’s, particularly since there’s no way to get back into my thirties!

Have you ever had something change your life forever that’s turned out to be the best thing ever?