Happily Ever After

I saw this on Pinterest the other day (Yep you can follow me there too!) and it is the perfect picture to add to this blog that I have been meaning to write for awhile now.

I found another saying some weeks ago, put it on a post it note, and then stuck it to a kitchen cupboard so I wouldn't lose it before I could blog about it.  "Once in awhile, right in the middle of an ordinary life..... Love comes along and brings you a fairy tale."  My niece Ashlyn, who is fifteen, happened to see it on the afternoon of her first date!  Even though she was giddy and singing through most of the egg coloring session with the little kids, she stopped for a moment to tell me that she doesn't believe in the fairy tale.  Yes, I am aware that my jaded self just might have caused that.

I guess I don't even really feel bad about that one, because life and love are no fairy tale.  It's tough stuff, it's messy, and it can be very ugly, but the beautiful moments make it all worthwhile.  They are what gives us the will to dust ourselves off and try again.  I believe in reality, not fairy tales.  I'm glad that she does too.  It wont diminish the beauty when love comes knocking on her door.  In fact, I think it actually enhances at it when you aren't looking through rose colored glasses.

I think her exact words were, "Auntie, I don't believe in happily ever after."  Now that part I did take exception with.  I will tell you what I told her.  "Ash, we all make our own happily ever after.  It's up to you to choose how it will be.  The life I have now, living on my own, with my new job, you kids, and Milkie, is pretty fabulous.  If this IS my happily ever after, I'm fine with it."  Heck being in a relationship isn't necessarily the key.  I've been in several, and being "happy" had little to do with it most of the time.

So as the picture says above, I will choose to take my happily ever after one day at a time.  If it's just me, that's fine.  If Prince Charming got lost somewhere and eventually shows up outside my door, that's fine too.  All that matters is that we (Ash and I )  LIVE HAPPILY ever after.