spoiler alert: it does not end happily ever after. the guy does not get the girl. they do not ride off into the sunset together. and all your questions are not answered. i am a hopeless romantic. even saying that entirely understates how much i adore love and fairy tales. not only am i a hopeless romantic, but i am also very passionate and have the tendency to feel things deeply, swooning, ooing, and awe-ing over anything related to love and becoming an incapacitated puddle of sappy emotion at the snap of a finger (well more like at the sight of a kitten or a wedding video). so sad endings are a struggle for me because i want to believe everything will always be perfect and predictable. but sometimes it doesn't happen like that. sometimes it does, but not in the time or manner in which you expected. sometimes you have to move on from what you thought would be your ideal fairytale and realize God has sometime else in store for you.
life is unexpected. you can plan, but some of your plans will inevitably fail.. but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. maybe we need to learn to embrace heartbreak, appreciating how it shapes us, while also appreciating the fairy tale moments as they come (whether that means a fairy tale with a prince or a fairytale where you embrace being a fiercely independent woman). we need to take time to be fully present in each moment, allowing ourselves to fall slowly into love, allowing ourselves to step away from love when it isn't meant to be, and allowing ourselves to be confident and secure in being single.
find joy in whatever situation you are in and be fully present in it. never let life pass you by because you are waiting for that perfect ending when you could be appreciating the beautiful story that is unfolding before you.
"Time is not ours, it is given to us, it is received by us. Time is promised to be short and fleeting. You can miss it. You will miss it, most of it. You can spend your whole life chasing it and come up empty. Or you can let it catch you and hold you and teach you." Jill Aspergren
