Monday, July 31, 2017

My Life is Like a Fairy Tale

Wouldn't it be nice if your life was like a fairy tale?  After all, fairy tales all end happily......."and they lived happily ever after."  But when you think about it, all fairy tales also have something else in common.  They all have terrible things that happen to the main character.

*Snow White's mother died when she was little, and she was raised by a step-mom who hated her to the point of trying to have her killed.  That must have been a hostile environment to grow up in.

*Belle, in the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, did not have a mother, and was raised by a father in relative poverty.  He and his daughter were not respected by their community, and had no support group except each other.  Belle was held hostage without hope of seeing her loving father again, and she didn't even get to say goodbye!

*Cinderella's mother also died when she was very young.  She was not loved by her step-mom, and when her father also died, leaving her an orphan, she was subjected to abuse and cruelty for the remainder of her growing up years.

*Rapunzel was kidnapped as a baby and raised by a woman who did not love her and only used her, keeping her isolated from society.

These do not sound like the kind of life experiences I would wish for!  Each character goes through very difficult things before their lives finally get better.  They each seem to stay cheerful and make the best of their difficult circumstances.  And do they really live happily ever after because their lives become perfect, or do they live happily ever after because they have a new perspective due to the hard things they have been through?  Maybe instead of becoming bitter about their past, they learned to see clearly and appreciate the good things they now had.  It never says their lives became perfect at the end of the story, only that they were happy.

I have not been through anything even close to these sweet fairy tale characters, but I have been through some extremely difficult times in my own story (which I will spare you from outlining here).  I am sure you have also been through some extremely difficult things in your life.  If we truly want to have our lives be like a fairy tale, let's do as Snow White, Belle, Cinderella , Rapunzel and others did - let's have a better perspective because of the things that we have been through, and see the good things that are all around us!

My life is like a fairy tale.  I live in a free country in the greatest age ever known to mankind.  I have beautiful shelter, plenty of food, clean water at my fingertips, and people who love me.  I am warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  I have access to good medical care.  I travel anywhere I like in a car that covers distance at speeds never heard of in past ages.  I can instantly talk to anyone in the world instead of waiting for weeks/months for letters to go back and forth.  I have access to learning just about anything I set my mind to.  People around me are basically good.  The beauty around me and above me is astounding when I stop to notice.

So you see, your life may really be like a fairy tale.  Even though you have been through hard times in your story, you get to choose your attitude through hard things, have hope for a better future, and make your own happy ending by seeing the sweetness in your life that is all around you.

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