AVATAR

Can I tell you how much I love this movie? I just took Mia and Victoria to see it and we all loved it. I know those of you I have talked to who have seen it have loved it too. I think one of the things that we love about it is the magic of the forest that James Cameron creates. From the beautiful trees to the colors and bio luminescence and the connection with the animals, it is all magical. It reminds me of the feeling of seeing Hogwarts come alive for the first time in Harry Potter and of the candy room in Willy Wonka's, purely magical and that is why we love these movies, for these magical places. But the thing is we don't have to imagine these type of magical places, we have them right here. We have places like Bryce Canyon with its colors and spires. We have the rain forests that have enormous amounts of species so many that we probably haven't even described half of them. We have crazy looking creatures that live at the bottom of the ocean where there is no light and they look like they come straight out of some serious science fiction. We have the giant redwoods, Arches, and the geysers of Yellowstone. We have magic all around us. In the movie when they attack HomeTree I could not help think about this stump of a Giant Sequoia that I saw in Calavaras State Park. It is what is left of the biggest tree in the grove. It is over thirty feet across. Shortly after the gold rush in California a hunter stumbled across this grove and found this enormous tree. Word soon spread of this giant tree. People rushed to see this spectacle but instead of respecting it, they cut it down. That stump is one of the saddest things I have seen, such magnificence destroyed intentionally. While it is great to be able to be taken away to these amazing places in the movies, let's not forget the amazing places all around us. My family and I were lucky enough to be raised in Utah where natural beauty was all around us, by people who had a great love for nature, I hope we can all keep that magic alive inside us and around us so we can pass down the legacy of our magical places.