By Deborah Blackwell<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Let me be honest. Fairy tales are my thing. I spent most of my life in pursuit of the coveted \u201chappy ending.\u201d That notion \u2014 everybody\u2019s happy, problems are solved, and life is good \u2014 is appealing. But my blog is named, Where\u2019s the Fairy Tale<\/em>, with a hint of sarcasm, for a reason. Somewhere along the way, fairy tales were replaced with real life, and the happy ending turned to just \u2026 hope.<\/p>\n While not-so-happy endings do bring the benefits of hindsight, \u201cbetter luck next time\u201d isn\u2019t satisfying. So, I recently upped my game from just hoping for a happy ending to pursing the dream come true.<\/p>\n But \u2026 real life.<\/p>\n After more than four years dealing with a COVID-caused health conundrum, I finally found the courage and stamina to look for a job. Although I have limitations \u2014 I can only work part-time, mostly remote, and need flexibility since my body still calls the shots \u2014 I was ready.<\/p>\n Magically, an opportunity that checked all the boxes and more, dropped into my lap. It was with people I know at a place I know, and I was not only sure it would be perfect but also certain it would work out. It didn\u2019t. After weeks of being strung along and led to believe I was in, I wasn\u2019t, and I was completely crushed.<\/p>\n Everything about this job seemed meant to be. Destined by fate. Divine intervention. It answered prayers for both income and enjoyment, and even better \u2014 meaning and purpose. A dream come true.<\/em> It felt familiar and I was empowered. I owned it deep down, like I already had the job before I even started. So, when I got the call that I hadn\u2019t, I started to question trust, in myself and in life.<\/p>\n It reminded me of how, a long time ago when my life felt complicated, I took my happy-ending quest into my own hands and embraced the self-help, healing movement. It focuses on the mind-body connection; deepened self-awareness; and most importantly, the fact that happiness comes from within. It isn\u2019t an ending at all, but simply a way of life. It\u2019s \u201cthoughts become things\u201d and it emphasizes that the power of our beliefs not only can, but will manifest our dreams.<\/p>\n I was all in. I put effort behind my intentions. Followed my dreams. Believed in miracles. Learned. Mantra\u2019d. Practiced. Trusted. We supposedly create our own realities, or at least have a strong hand in them. But do we? I thought so, for more than twenty years. But then I didn\u2019t get that job. And for some reason, this not-so-happy ending broke me.<\/p>\n Does life happen to us, for us, because of us, or in spite of us?<\/p>\n Instead of trying to answer that, I gathered up all my discomfort \u2014 dashed hopes, anger, sadness, and despair \u2014 reached back into my self-help toolbox, and tried mindfulness. It\u2019s not easy to sit with emotions and uncomfortable sensations without assigning \u201cright\u201d or \u201cwrong\u201d to our feelings; create a sad story about our life based on what happens to us; or not attach to anything and just be with \u201cwhat is.\u201d I\u2019ll let you know if it works.<\/p>\n The other day, feeling left in the dust, exhausted and blurry-eyed from looking for a job, I closed my laptop, put my glasses down on the bed where I was sitting, and went to get a glass of water. When I came back, I plopped back down \u2014 on my glasses. I bent the frames enough to need an emergency repair.<\/p>\n Naturally, I wondered what the universe was trying to tell me. So, I put on an old pair of glasses and Googled the mystical meaning of broken eyeglasses. A conglomeration of answers revealed all I needed to know: Breaking eyeglass frames disrupts insight and clarity, indicating the old way of seeing things is no longer useful. It launches a season of change when all you hold dear is questioned and transformed. Re-evaluate your course. You are losing direction but gaining perspective and a new vision.<\/p>\n Hmmm. Does this mean no more belief in fairy tales? My good friend said obviously I sat on them because I just didn\u2019t want to look for a different job. Maybe that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n If pursuing a dream come true inspires us to follow new paths, then I\u2019m glad I bent my glasses. I\u2019ll happily change direction, find a new vision, and try to see things in a new way.<\/p>\n Hold onto hope.<\/p>\n And never give up on happy endings.<\/p>\n \n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,74,61,48,49,66,75,65,100,62,32,94,24,45,43,44,30,77,93,84,89],"class_list":["post-3506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-acceptance","tag-adulthood","tag-belief","tag-choice","tag-comfort","tag-courage","tag-dream","tag-empowerment","tag-future","tag-growth","tag-happiness","tag-healing","tag-insight","tag-journey","tag-life","tag-life-lessons","tag-perception","tag-purpose","tag-shine","tag-vulnerability","tag-wellbeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3506"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3522,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions\/3522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahblackwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}