Day 61: Just A Bit Of Magic
How many times have you wished life was like a fairytale? We are constantly surrounded by “perfect” stories in the form of books, movies and other forms of entertainment. It is impossible to escape from the fairytale mentality and it can send us spiraling into this belief that our life is not enjoyable because it does not live up to those standards.
Our lives are far from perfect, things can get quite messy as we go about our day to day tasks and routines. We have our ups and we have our downs just like everyone around us. Some days are better than others and some days we feel as if we simply cannot go any further.
When we look around we are confronted with this sense of perfection. Social media allows everyone to share their favorite moments from life, not the messy ones. On television we see stories that follow a person from their worst moments to their happily ever afters. In books, we are surrounded by these fairytales and beautiful stories. It seems like everything works out in the end for everyone besides us.
This mentality that our life is not a fairytale and is this sad tale of one unhappy event after another consumes us. We begin to look at our lives from a judgmental perspective. If only we had this or that then . . . THEN we would have our fairytale ending. Somehow we transform our beautiful life into this mess that needs fixing before it can be enjoyed.
Yet this is detrimental to our overall happiness when we are constantly comparing our lives with these fairytales. No life is not a fairytale. There will not be a fairy godmother popping up from nowhere to transform us into this princess or prince and take us to a beautiful ball where we will meet the love of our life. It simply does not happen like that.
However, in the midst of a crazy and messy life there are so many magical fairytale moments. Nothing is perfect, but there are times when we can feel the magic and experience what it's like to live in a fairytale. If only for a moment.
Those are the moment we should be looking for, they are all around us. Yet because we focus on the mess and the chaos, we miss out on the magic. When we become consumed by perfection we miss the fact that there is so much beauty in the imperfections. The fairytale does not happen when we achieve the impossible and reach perfection. The fairytale happens when we let go of this idea of needing perfection and embrace the beauty of our life, just as it is.
Life is no fairytale, but it is beautiful and imperfect and all those little moments add up to create a beautiful messy narrative of who we are. That is far more important than any story we could ever read. So turn away from the need for perfection and a happily ever after. Embrace the beautiful, messy, chaotic life you are living and all the fairytale moments that will come your way.
For as Fairy Godmother put it in the 2015 adaptation of Cinderella, "Continue to see the world not as it, but as it could be, if only you believe in courage and kindness and occasionally, just a little bit of magic."
Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt
