Once upon a time...

there was a girl who was in love with the idea of being in love.  She grew up wanting a fairytale to rescue her from the place she was in, a man who would love her the way she always wanted to be loved.  And while she daydreamed her future, she was also terrified that no one would ever love her.  No one would ever think that she was good enough exactly as she was...and so when she met her prince, she became exactly what she thought he wanted her to be.  She spoke what she thought would make him smile.  Loved him the way he wanted to be loved.  Agreed and nodded "Yes" even when her heart screamed "No!"...

And then one day she woke up and realized that her life was only a daydream.  It was beautiful in it's own right.  Full of every material thing she could ask for...and for a long time she thought that was what happiness was...but as she woke from that sleepy haze she realized that it wasn't happiness she felt inside...it was being "content" with an ordinary life...and so she sat down and cried because for as wonderful as it was, she didn't want an ordinary life.

So she packed her bags and set for a voyage across the sea.  Her very own tears pushing the boat across the waves until she finally found shelter in a home full of love and lightness.  And over time she began to find her center.  She began to understand what it meant to be happy.  What it meant to live a life that was not ordinary...but rather extraordinary.  She met the most amazing people on her journey...people who she never would have met had she not had a broken heart...

She learned how to tell people what she wanted and what questions to ask.  She learned that she loved to dance to music alone in her own home  She learned that it was okay to open her heart and share...even if it meant she would feel a little pain.  And so when she finally met someone she opened herself.  She answered all of his questions, she said what she wanted to say and not what she thought he would want to hear.  She found that feeling in herself that she most feared and put it in the palm of her hand to show him what she never thought was good enough.  He smiled.  Kissed her and then said goodbye.  And while she waited for him to call, all of her fears came back...that the reason he didn't call was because she hadn't said what he wanted.  She hadn't become the person he wanted her to be.  She smiled to her friends and said it was okay...but she felt a little broken inside and had to look in the mirror and ask "why am I not enough just as I am?"  She sighed deeply and resigned...she slept a dreamless sleep for the first time in a long time...but when she woke, she saw that he had called.

And she finally understood what it meant when people said "someday the pain will be useful to you."  She finally understood that she had to let go of those old fears, release them into the wind and when the timing and the man were right...love as if she were indestructible.