But no words bring me to me. No. Only time will allow me to discover that. Only Time will keep me in his arms, his ever elusive lips dancing across my skin. Time is the lover we all fear the most. She creeps and takes, she rarely gives, but when she does give, she gives her all. She fights, she’s relentless. She can never let you win and you can never let her go…and yet, she cares the most. She wants to see you happy, she wants to have you smile, hear your laughter fill up her clock.
Maybe the best love is always the most complicated. No fairytale was ever easy. Maybe our Disney fantasies were right and we were just so busy waiting on love to fix everything, we forgot to fight for who we are. Fairytale love is a reward for all the pain, for the torture, for the never-ending fight; it isn’t the solution.
How did we so blindly miss that? Prince Charming didn’t save Cinderella, she worked hard, stayed humble, and kept her pessimism at bay. Prince Charming was her reward for staying true to herself.
Snow White wasn’t saved by true love’s first kiss. No. She was rewarded with a second chance at life with someone who gave a crap about her. Yes, those seven dwarfs cared deeply, and she loved them just the same, but she needed a bigger love, a desperate, consuming love. She worked hard to care for those dwarfs, and even when the evil queen’s spell took everything from her, that poisonous apple allowed her to slip away. Snow White had not been naïve as we all thought, but she had been kind to the old lady who gave her the apple. Even in her worst moment, Snow White’s kindness bled through. She was given a second life, filled with love and adoration.
For Sleeping Beauty, I know the tale not so well, but from what I gather, she was curious. And through her curiosity came her darkest hour. But through those hours of being locked up, sleeping endlessly, she only dreamt of truth, at least, one can only imagine. I believe she did. When you have nothing to live for, mustn’t you live for yourself, mustn't you dream of truth? It may be selfish to live a life for yourself, but when there’s nothing left, isn’t your whole self worth it? Doesn’t it have to be? She thought so. I think so. She was also given a chance to live again. She was given the opportunity of love. Forever growing, forever changing love that would never end. She lived for herself and love found her.
Now Belle is a different story. She was not in danger or needed saving of her life. Though, the society that Belle came from feared the Beast and felt that Belle must need saving from the creature. But their story isn’t a fantastical love story, no unheard of fairytale. He was trapped into being a person he didn’t want to be. He was cruel and mean because he knew nothing else. She was kind because she saw the pain. She did not take pity, as many believed, she gave compassion, acceptance, words that fairytales leave out because they fear we are too young to know or understand them. Through her compassion, he learned to be kind, he learned to be him. He found himself, not through her, but because of her. This transformation was not because of love, or for love; but love was born, bred deep inside these changes. Unlike the other stories, Belle and Beast did not have to be saved, no one was after them.
They were their own enemies. We are our own enemies.
Our thoughts trap us and we give ourselves ideas that tear us a part. We drive ourselves mad trying to do what we think we want, what we know is expected, but we lose ourselves too often in these preconceived notions of our life projections. If we don’t actually need saving in our lives, if we only need to find who we are and stay true to our being, can we find love? Will love breed itself into our lives, waiting to birth at all the wrong moments? Because our fantasy love saves us, but our reality love wreaks havoc at all the wrong times. Love is not always beautiful and our saving grace, it is never our redeeming quality. We must find the good, the best in ourselves before love can make its presence known.
To Time, To Love, & Fairytales Untold
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