Does that even exist? Do you believe in it… for you? Or is this only a myth, a dream? One of the delights of childhood is the ‘happily ever after’ endings to stories, but is this only for children? Don’t you, at least secretly, wish for this? When things get really difficult is when we think about those endings. Sometimes ‘happily ever after’ is not a possibility. Sometimes bad things do happen… and to good people.
How we emotionally and intellectually proceed is another measure of our character. We all know what won’t work – blaming others, pouting, complaining – but that doesn’t mean we don’t indulge in it… at least for while. Attempting to find how and what we are going to do next is not always obvious. And sometimes we don’t, or at least don’t believe we do, have the luxury of time to determine ‘next’. Now what? Stumble on? Keep going in the same way? Change… to what? And exactly what is ‘happily ever after’ for you?
We’ve all been in these situations and we’ve lived through them, albeit not always well. But our world did not end, changed perhaps, but not ended. Happily? Sometimes… we actually are surprised by ‘happily’. I believe that we can make our own ‘happily ever after’, in fact… we are the only ones who really can. And this is more than just ‘making the best of things’ or ‘try, try, again’, it really is a character issue that becomes a mindset. How do we proceed when happily ever after seems impossible to attain? Are we willing to pay the price for ‘happily’?
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to this dilemma and my answer may not be yours. What you need is to know how you can emotionally and intellectually move on creatively. Because that’s the key – continuing, though perhaps not in the same direction or in the same way. You have the choice to look at life and discover the silver linings (no, not through rose colored glasses) or see only despair and destruction and become devastated. Realistically, you have to look at your situation dispassionately and decide what your ‘next’ is. Hope is believing that you can and will find your happily ever after.
