Into the Woods

Approximately eight days ago, I went to the movie theatre (which is singular in and of itself) with my parents. We saw Into the Woods.
Since that fateful day, my brain has continued to play the entire soundtrack on repeat during every waking moment. Which is partly my own fault since I listened to it on Spotify several times after seeing the movie. That’s where the addiction started. 
The soundtrack is about an hour long, which means that in eight days I’ve listened to the soundtrack (in my head or in real life) approximately 1000 times.
#thishappenswitheverymusicalIsee
I’ll try to detox this week with some other obnoxiously catchy music.

Anyways, the point of that story (which wasn’t actually quite a story) was to transition into how much I actually enjoyed the musical with its multi-faceted themes, the largest of which comes from its title of course: into the woods.

I love things that make you grow. Like vegetables. And missions. And college. And relationships with others. And existing. You know. With the exception of eating vegetables, those are all experiences I’ve had of “going into the woods.” Maybe I don’t love them all the time (heck, sometimes I just want to burn down the whole stinkin’ forest to get out as quickly as possible), but I treasure what I learn from the woods. Because as the good old baker’s wife sings:

“There’s something about the woods…
at home I’d fear we’d stay the same forever….
We’ve changed
We’re strangers.
I’m meeting you in the woods.
Who minds
What dangers?
I know we’ll get past the woods.
And once we’re past,
Let’s hope the changes last.”

Admittedly that’s not the most common song that’s been on brain repeat (usually it’s been something about trading beans for a cow or wanting to go the festival), but I like the thoughts.


We all take these journeys into the woods—quests so to say—and sometimes we get stuck for a long time. Sometimes we get eaten by wolves and a baker needs to help us out of that unfortunate situation. Sometimes we get distracted by charming yet insincere princes. Sometimes we accidently let destructive giants come into the woods with us. Sometimes we have to chase after cows that we’d already caught. But we get out of the woods eventually. Hopefully for the better. Even if we have to go back in to remember what we learned and to make those changes last.

So into the woods it is. Forever and again.



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