August 18 2024
What is the fairytale anyway? Is it Cinderella in the gilded coach, pulled by white horses sitting alongside prince charming?
Or is it eating an insanely good double patty hamburger with everything on it, sitting on a mountain top at sunset?
As little girls we move through the stages of blossoming into a woman rather erratically. Our idea of a fairytale life changes with each stage we pass through.
We cant envision what we want at the end of the rainbow because we aren't even really sure who we are, or what we are passionate about. We spend our younger years wanting to fit in, wanting to be liked, and wanting to be accepted in the peer groups we chose.Even if we are accepted into the those groups, we still aren't sure they reflect who we really are.
It can take decades to finally look in the mirror and recognize who is looking back at us. We date a myriad of different suitors, sometimes even trying to become what a person wants us to be so the relationship will ‘work’.
We wait for that knight in shining armor and we navigate the waters of marriage. We have children and at that point we realize we have the responsibility of ‘adulting’. There are now tiny little people looking to us for guidance and support. Every day.....of every week.....of every month......for 18 years...or more.
I was raised in a dysfunctional home with an emotionally abusive parent. There were no examples of how to be a good parent, how to love a child , or how to find that balance of discipline, and fun. I was always told I wouldn’t accomplish my goals, always reminded how inadequate I was, and routinely embarrassed in public with condescending comments and disdainful looks.
We are all walking wounded from our childhood to one degree or another. We carry those wounds with us through our dating years, our marriages, and in the raising of our children. The key to having the fairytale ending, is learning to use our past experiences to be a better person, instead of an excuse to fail.
If there are people in your life that doubt how far you can go.....go so far that you cant hear them anymore. Don't entertain the negative voices.
I finally realized I didn't want to fit into certain groups, or wear the ‘right’ clothes, or drive the ‘right’ car. I no longer needed the acceptance of others. The fairytale does exist...but it may not be neatly wrapped up, and tied with a beautiful bow as expected. It may come in bits and pieces, and you may need to put those pieces together.
The fairytale life begins the moment you celebrate who is looking back at you in the mirror.
Don't fixate on what didn't happen the way you envisioned it. Pay attention to whats right in front of you today.
If you spend your time pretending to be something you are not, you deny the world the gift of who you really are
.The realization of that........will give you the fairytale ending. Whatever that may be. The only thing left to do is go out and live it.
But thats just my opinion....:)
