Ah yes, the famed fairy tale HEA. When the Prince meets the Princess, when the bad witch is banished, when the hero is finally champion...
Everything is 100% perfect, right? WRONG (well, in my personal opinion). One of my favorite picture books happens to be the book someone wrote about what happened AFTER the Frog Prince became a prince. They're not very happy because they don't appreciate each other and their unique strengths and weaknesses. It's not an HEA. But when the Frog Prince tries to turn back into a frog, in an epic (LOVE that word) adventure, they eventually find each other and realize how much they love each other. Oh, sure neither one of them are perfect - but they begin to see how truly wonderful they other is. So now they have an HEA. They STILL get on each others nerves (that's what I think), but they truly appreciate each other.
I, personally, am a huge fan of happy endings. I like it when everything turns out beautiful and wonderful and happy and everybody gets what they want. But that's not real life. Everything's NOT going to be beautiful and wonderful and happy. You're NOT always going to get what you want. So what then? Do we just not get our Happily Ever After? No! Life isn't ever going to be perfect. So you just have to pick yourself up, move on, and live life. Accepting what you have and appreciating what you have that's good in life is having a HEA. I KNOW I have an HEA. I have a wonderful family, live in a wonderful place, with wonderful friends. Sure, sometimes I wish I lived elsewhere. My family and friends aren't always on my good side - but I'm not always on theirs, either. But I have an HEA, because I see what I have (most of the time).
A Happily Ever After isn't getting your perfect ending. It isn't where the hero wins - at least, not all the time. It isn't getting what you want. It isn't having everything be perfect. It's where the "hero" looses, but picks themselves up and moves on. It's wanting what you've got (stole that from a song, can't remember the title). It's having life be imperfect, but you cherishing it all the same.
So we ALL have an HEA. We just have to look around, and then we'll see. So:
Happily Ever After to you!
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Hmn. I was actually working on a 'what is a HAE' piece of my own. ^__^ But then I got distracted and never finished it.
ReplyDeleteAny ways: You are very optimistic. It makes me want to puke rainbows. In a GOOD way. No! But seriously, that's all happy and fluffy and stuffs. So... yeah. ^.^