Mark Ruffalo & The Circle in the Sky

“And don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear?”

– Jack Kerouac, On the Road

G’Day!

I hope this blog finds you happy & healthy & gearing up for spring!

All is tickety-boo with me. I am having an amazing trip…seeing some stunning places, having loads of fun, visiting with family and friends, meeting interesting new people and getting plenty of work done, too!

Here I am blogging again about the importance of knowing our “Why?” Funny how this message keeps popping up…and bonking me on the head 🙂

I had a bit of a weird moment, a couple of weeks ago, that I wanted to share with you – because it struck me as one of those times when it seemed as if the Universe was (again) trying to get my attention…the spiritual equivalent of a waving flag, if you will.

Here’s what happened:

I was on a 13-hour bus tour from Melbourne (southern Australia) visiting the breathtaking sights along the Great Ocean Road. It was near the end of the day and we were on the drive back to Melbourne. Everybody was tired and the guide had finished talking, so I was listening to a podcast and just enjoying looking out the window. I happened to be listening to the Smartless podcast (hosted by the hilarious trio, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes & Will Arnett) of the interview with actor and activist, Mark Ruffalo.

You can have a listen to the podcast here, if you like. It is excellent! They all are.

In the interview, Mark Ruffalo was sharing how he woke up one morning  and just knew he had a brain tumour. He’d had a bit of an earache the day before – but certainly nothing to warrant him thinking it was a tumour! He explained that when he woke up, it wasn’t like he ‘heard a voice’ in his head telling him he had a brain tumour. Rather, it was more like being on the receiving end of  “pure knowledge” i.e. he just knew.

So he went to work that day and told the doctor on set something to the effect of, “I know this is crazy but I think I might have a brain tumour.” The doctor assured him he probably didn’t…but that just to be on the safe side, she’d book him in for a CAT scan.

He had the CAT scan and sure enough, he had a mass the size of a golf ball behind his ear! His doctor was as freaked out as he was. The tumor was removed and although the surgery was intense and left him deaf in that ear, thankfully Mark was okay…and has been okay ever since.

So that story, in and of itself, is pretty wild. The sassy podcast hosts – Jason, Sean & Will – were certainly blown away by the fact that not only did Mark intuitively know there was something wrong with him, he also had the wisdom to act on that hunch (instead of ignoring it, as we so often do).

And here’s what was going in my world, while listening to Mark Ruffalo’s story on the podcast:

Our bus happened to be driving by some sort of air show on the outskirts of Melbourne. So I was listening to Mark Ruffalo tell the story about his brain tumour – while watching several stunt planes make these really big loops in the sky…with coloured smoke pouring out the back of the planes, so I could SEE the circles left behind in the sky.

Then I watched as the planes made a huge circle…and I thought to myself: Well now, this is a little unusual. I mean, seeing a giant circle being drawn in the sky doesn’t happen everyday. I wonder if I’m supposed to be paying attention to this?

As I listened to Mark Ruffalo (a person I admire) share his experience (on my favourite podcast) about how he trusted the message/insight/himself enough to ask for a CAT scan, even though it didn’t make rational sense to do so, I asked myself: “WHY might I be seeing multiple stunt planes make a giant circle in the sky at this particular moment in time?”

The answer didn’t come to me until the next morning, when I was having coffee in my hotel room (at the lovely Savoy Hotel on Little Collins) before getting down to work for the day. My writing task that morning was to continue trimming “The Pooh Stone” screenplay from a whopping 145 pages down to a more reasonable 120 pages (which would be a two-hour feature film). What had started out months earlier (sigh) as a “quick edit” had spiraled out of control…and I was really struggling to regain control. I couldn’t seem to figure out what to cut.

Now, “The Pooh Stone” screenplay is basically the Disney version of the “A Widow’s Awakening” story. I haven’t yet figured out how to get the script to Disney…but I have no doubt it will happen when the time is right. “The Pooh Stone” screenplay focuses on the rather uncanny incidents that happened at Disneyland the week before my husband, John, died suddenly at the age of 32.

Here’s just one example of what happened at Disneyland:

In September 2000, John and I were at a friend’s wedding in Disneyland. We were waiting for the fireworks to begin when an elderly woman, wearing a Winnie the Pooh jacket, tripped (or fainted) right in front of us – and hit the back of her head on the concrete. John (a police officer) immediately dropped to his knees to help her.

Exactly one week later, when we were back home again in Canada, John was investigating a break and enter complaint when he fell through an unmarked false ceiling, hit the back of his head on the concrete and died of a brain injury. Two days later, I was at the cemetery, trying to choose his burial plot, when I turned my head and saw a large Winnie the Pooh carved into a nearby headstone…and I just knew it was a “sign” of sorts – an indication that I was exactly where I was meant to be, even though I certainly didn’t want to be. And I knew I’d found John’s grave.

“The Pooh Stone” screenplay explores this question: if we are going through a really difficult experience and begin to notice unusual “coincidences,” is that just our desperate mind grasping for meaning, so that we are able to accept the unacceptable? Or…are we meant to notice the little signs and coincidences – and use them as guides to help us determine how best to proceed? In other words, might some sort of higher power/universal intelligence/benevolent God actually exist?

Which brings me back to Mark Ruffalo and the circle in the sky:

Here’s the answer that came to me the next morning (after seeing the big circle in the sky): the best way for me to know what to cut in “The Pooh Stone” screenplay would be for me to come full circle back to WHY I wrote the script in the first place.

And sure enough, after I took some time to reflect on my original “why,” I was quickly able to get rid of all the extraneous content and dialogue that wasn’t connected to that why. Within two days, I had the script back down to 120 pages…and then out into the world it went again.

Just in case you’re curious about why I chose to write “The Pooh Stone” screenplay, this was my reason: I wanted to share with a younger audience my experience of losing a loved one at a fairly young age, including how I learned to trust my intuition and pay attention to all the little “coincidences” and “signs” that I suspected might be trying to help me find my way through a very difficult time.

Whether you are a believer in “signs” or not – or have any sort of faith in a higher power or not – I think one thing we can all agree on is this: when we are struggling with how to move forward with something – or which direction to take/decision to make in life – a helpful tool to determine how best to proceed is to come full circle: take a moment to reflect back on your original “why” – and if the decision you’re considering taking doesn’t fit that why, then don’t take that path.

Now…is all this what I was “supposed” to take from watching those stunt planes making a huge circle in the sky? Who knows! Maybe I’m just a really imaginative person who likes to delve below the surface of things to find a deeper meaning.

And does it really matter?

Maybe what matters is that, as with Mark Ruffalo’s brain tumour, sometimes we just know things…and even though we may not be able to rationally explain it, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t honour it.

On a final note…

When I went to write this blog a few days ago, I did a quick bit of research to find out if, in fact, there was an airshow near Melbourne that day (March 26^th). Yes, there was. It’s called the Avalon Airshow. And get this: two days later (on March 28^th) one of the stunt planes spiraled out of control and crashed on the tarmac in front of thousands of people during the public portion of the show! Unbelievably, the pilot survived the crash but was in critical condition. Thankfully, he is now in stable condition.

You can view the incident here.

You can take what you like from this story. But personally, I’m glad I delved a little deeper…just in case I was supposed to. I mean, the fact that it was a big ‘sign’ in the sky that helped get me get back on track with writing a screenplay about spiritual signs is…interesting. Full circle indeed 🙂

Here are some photos from the magical city of Melbourne: 

Related blogs by Maryanne

Shifting Our Perspective

What I Re-Learned on my Recent Solo Writing Retreat in Oregon

Maryanne Pope is the author of “A Widow’s Awakening.” She also writes screenplays, playscripts & blogs. Maryanne is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and Co-Founder of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. To receive her blog, “Weekly Words of Wisdom,” please subscribe here. And be sure to visit our PinkGazelleCards Etsy shop.