piper.

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen Finding Dory, stop reading right now. Get in your car, drive to the movie theatre, and prepare to cry. A lot.

I am blown away by Disney/Pixar writers. Blown. Away. I always walk away from those movies amazed at how GOOD they are. The stories are simple. There is a stunning lack of betrayal, manipulation, and stuff blowing up (as well as several other elements that saturate the majority of movies today) – yet I always walk away with in a completely amazed and self-reflectant state that only an excellent movie (or a really good burger) can induce.

The beauty in Disney/Pixar movies is that usually the motive of the protaganist is, purely and simply, to return home. Woody fought to find his way back to Andy, Mike & Sully worked together to return Boo back to where she belonged, and Dory set off in search of the place she came from. ONLY Disney/Pixar can reveal a deeper truth about humanity, (as well as make me question EVERYTHING about my life: S/O to the movie Up) through animated, talking animals. It’s astounding.

This brings me to Finding Dory – specifically the animated short, Piper, that is shown before the film.

The short starts off with a young baby bird who is scared to venture by the shoreline. Coaxed by her mother (and the promise of food) Piper braves her way from her nest to the shoreline. She blissfully starts picking at shells in search of food before the tide swells in and she is plummeted underwater, an undoubtedly new and terrifying experience for a baby bird.  She returns to her nest wet, terrified, and shaking.

Eventually, she notices a few crabs playing along the shoreline. Curious, she ventures out from her nest, still wet and skittish, and begins to watch them. She looks, awestruck, as the crabs bury themselves in the sand when the tide rolls over. Once the waves recede, the crabs return to the surface and continue to look for food.

She looks, amazed. She has never seen anything like this before. As the tide begins to return, you can see the apprehension on Piper’s little face as she contemplates: do I try it? Her eyes grow wide as she scrambles to bury her own hole. The tide comes in, and she is submerged underwater. For the first time, she is not scrambling or floating along in panic and confusion. She opens her eyes and a whole new world is before her. Her new view allows her to spot more places to search for food and she quickly sets off, armed with her new knowledge and bravery, to gather food for her whole town (do birds have a town?).

The short is incredibly adorable, and after my immediate desire to find the nearest beach and bury myself in the sand passed, I was struck with a few thoughts.

Every great adventure starts with a moment where you ask yourself: will this actually work? Can I actually do this? Sometimes, you want to tell yourself no. Before she buried the hole, Piper undoubtedly took one look at the rising tide and remembered the way it left her terrified and cold. Any risk is preceded by a few (or in my case several thousand) heart-pounding moments where your hands start to shake and you have the overwhelming urge to run as fast as you can away from the wave. To get in your car, pack your bags, and hide in a place where you WILL NEVER SEE A WAVE AGAIN. (AKA the Midwest)

I don’t know what that looks like for you, but in case you need someone to tell you this: you can do it. Whatever it is, you got it. Somehow, Piper chose to face the wave again and you can too. Don’t be afraid to get your hair wet and experience a new view.

Actually, you can still be afraid, but choose to do it anyway.

The other thing that amazed me is that instead of staying in her newly buried spot, Piper immediately sets off to gather food for other birds. She shared her gifts with the other birds. She could have sat in her new vantage spot, mulling over her new feast and thinking to herself, “wow – that SUCKS to be them. Too bad they didn’t watch the crabs as closely as I did. I’m going to hoard all this food to myself and laugh about how stupid everybody else is.” But she didn’t. She took a risk, experienced something new, and used it to bless others. And we should too.

Again, I don’t know what that looks like for you. Whether it’s a a skill that you’ve mastered or a knack for acquiring really good Caribou perks (S/O to Mark Habeck), think of ways you can use it to someone else’s benefit. Spend time teaching someone who continually is ready to smash their computer against the wall (ME- always.) how to wipe their hard drive (or whatever it is that makes your computer run smoothly), write someone a note of encouragement, use your listening skills and spend time talking to the lady in Target who could really use someone to listen to her.

So that’s it, friends. Take a risk. Bless others. And if you know someone who hasn’t seen Finding Dory yet, take them to go see it and then message me so we can count the INFINITE ways the movie was perfect.