Danny’s survival depends on his ability to use the connection aspect of his shining to separate himself from the hotel’s clutches, not by denying the experiences his shining gives him but by understanding them and finding strength and insight from them. Our recovery is no different.

We need to view them as reflections of where we're at and evaluations of what we need to work on rather than measures of our worth as a human being. Our worth lies in all the practice and work, the unglamorous grind that takes place off the stage and continues when the spotlight ends.

That’s how we get through it. We reach for the connections in our life, the real ones, and we deepen them. We tell them every little thing, and we listen to what they tell us. 

He lets go of that small purpose and opens space in himself for a greater Purpose and Plan about which he doesn’t have all the information. 

As prophets in their own way, Abrahams and Montague witness and testify to the power in running a straight race, a phrase we hear from Liddell in one of his sermons in the film. Liddell tells his audience of the similarities between running and faith, and we see these parallels lived in real time in the lives of Liddell, Abrahams, Lindsay and Montague. Each in his own way serves not only as an ambassador of England to the Paris Olympics, but also as a prophet of the truths of life as enacted in running.

By nature and for survival, we learn from our experiences in life, and that learning is seriously affected by our warped and self-centered perception of reality. Our minds dutifully take lessons to heart that a healthier mind wouldn’t waste any notebook space on…

We don’t like pain or difficulty, but they’re part of life. We have to believe they’re part of a plan greater than we can orchestrate if we’re going to find the way forward, and we can’t do that alone.

This is recovery. Though Steve may not have realized it, he has been on this search since he first lost touch with the connection he was born into. We all live like this, searching for whatever means we find to recover that sense of connection.

I want to live again. I want to live again. Please, God, let me live again.

The magic here isn’t so much the tree as it is the group of them uniting in their acceptance of the simple tree and contributing their attention in a group effort to love it and embrace their friend’s choice.

The word ‘will’ can never be a statement of accomplished fact since no one can predict the future, but it gives us the intended action rather than just the hope of what the future holds. So when I say I’m willing to face a fear or willing to train for a race, it doesn’t just mean I want to do it. It means I’m doing it.

We deconstruct the monstrosity of the monster when we take the time to cultivate a real connection; so when we are able to accept the monster parts of ourselves, we can choose to practice a mindful presence with that self and begin the process of recovering the conscious selves we lost sight of while fixating on what we thought were monsters.

I don’t think that Chris wanted to die, but he seems to have accepted it as his fate given the circumstances and his note. I think at long last he finally found the salve to his brokenness and disconnect. By sitting with himself in nature, having the time to reflect on his life and the people in it, he doesn’t feel alone anymore.

I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. Life in plastic. It’s fantastic.

That’s what this movie is essentially about. By stifling it or trying to avoid it, we turn the part of “us” that scares us into the enemy without realizing that we are the monsters we’ve villainized. We create horror.