Building Bridges

Actor Jeff Bridges, a fellow Montecito resident, accepted the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at last week’s Golden Globes. While the film favorite may be better known for his roles in “Crazy Heart” or “The Big Lebowski,” it’s his performance (and pet project) in “The Giver” that really resonates with me.

Based on the best-selling novel by Lois Lowry, “The Giver” is set in a future of conformity and contentment, where the past is not only unspoken, but it is also unknown. There’s an exception; a sole individual (played by Bridges) has the spiritual “gift” of memory and is a living database of what happened decades and eons ago. He must now give (thus, “The Giver,”) this information to a chosen newcomer, who is known as The Receiver of Memory.

While the film may have a sci-fi spin, its core and message are wrapped in humanity, hope and wisdom. The first time I saw this movie in 2014, I connected with both characters: The Giver and The Receiver. Perhaps, it was because not only were both communicators, but they had been “chosen” for their undertakings.

When I had my intense spiritual awakening more than ten years ago and discovered my psychic gift, I was intuitively “shown” at the time that I was “chosen” for that role. I gasped, “chosen,” sensing it sounded grandiose or even egotistical. But, now, it feels right to me, having been doing this type of work for the past nine years. I made my intentions clear during those early, life-shattering days just over a decade ago: I will use my gift to help people and to help the planet.

Jeff Bridges worked on “The Giver” for years (at one time even wanted his late father Lloyd to play the title character), constructing spiritual themes that tug at our hearts and souls. Every time I watch this movie (I have the DVD), I discover something meaningful. It inspires me to reach out and continue my own work.

Building bridges is part of my spiritual journey.

Love and Light,

Tony

Jeff Bridges, left, and Brenton Thwaites in a scene from “The Giver.”