ever after, otherwise known as now

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She wasn't a princess, but her family was quite wealthy, in a way, so she was never lacking for anything. She had more love than a queen, and when you have a lot of love, you don't notice anything missing from life.

She didn't live in the woods with her widowed father and a step-mother. She lived on the prairie, surrounded by corn fields, with her father, her birth mother, two brothers, two sisters, and an assortment of animals who she considered her friends. She thought that dandelions, purple thistle-flowers, and tiger lilies were much more beautiful than roses. She played outside in the hot humid summer, and in the cold snowy winter. She danced. She loved her home but was also curious about the rest of the world.

When it was time for her to leave home, she was sad, but ready. There were many things she needed to do. She studied dance, and worked hard. She learned to take care of herself, to cook, pay rent, and find balance in life. Things that some princesses are never given a chance to do.

As she got older, she began to notice that her life was different than she had expected it to be. She had finished college, but for her, that didn't mean she knew what kind of job she wanted. Or where she wanted to live. Most of her friends were getting married. She saw that she did not want to sit back and wait for something to happen to her, and there was a big world to explore.

So she danced with African children on red dirt floors... watched sunsets and ate raw oysters on the beach in Mexico and snorkeled in Aruba and got lost in the Bahamas. She played with sled-dogs on a mountain top in Alaska... saw whales surfacing in the cold waters off the British Columbian coast. She saw a ballet in the Royal Opera House in London and zip-lined through a Costa-Rican rainforest. She swam in the Caribbean at midnight on a deserted beach. She saw the view from some of the tallest buildings in the world--the Sears Tower and Taipei 101. She sipped ginseng wine in Korea and mate with villagers in Paraguay and oolong tea on a temple-dotted mountain in Taiwan. She tried surfing in Hawaii and gambling in Vegas. She stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and went jogging in the Hollywood hills. She moved to another country, alone, where she didn't know anyone or speak the language. And she loved it.

She has seen and done many things. She's been many places. She has loved many people. And lost some people. She met some frogs that turned out to be just that--frogs... despite what she thought she saw. A frog is a frog and cannot be a Prince. And she is better off alone.

Now she is 27, just today. It will be a good year, she thinks. Sometimes she wonders if she's made the right choices. Or what things would have been like if... or could have been, if only... But really, she is content. More than content. She doesn't wear a ring on her left hand, and no one calls her "Mommy," things that at one time, she imagined would have happened by now. But what has happened, and what is, is so far beyond her wildest dreams; she has nothing but gratitude. She's not a princess, and doesn't believe in Prince Charmings, but this is her version of a fairy tale. Ever after doesn't begin when you get a new job, get married, or have a baby. It's not something you wait for. It's now, this moment, life. Her ever after began 27 years ago, the day she was born, and she's living it, sometimes happily; always joyfully.