Dear One, You Are Enough

Hello, my lovelies!

Lately I’ve become more protective of fairy tales. It’s weird really and hard to explain, but I’ll try.

See, lately I’ve found myself feeling the same way for Snow White that I do a close friend. She’s special to me, the one fairy tale I’ve never felt connected to before. But between my Western Snow White Novella and my Snow White/Robin Hood Adventure Comedy, I’ve come to spend a lot of time with her in the last few months.

She’s grown on me. Become a part of me. She means something to me that I never imagined she would. And because of her I’ve started to realize why I love fairy tales.

Survivors:

What do Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty, the Goose Girl, and Rapunzel all have in common?

They’re survivors.

Snow White is almost murdered by her stepmother- a woman so cruel and vicious that she wants to not only see the girl dead but feast on her organs- and yet she manages to escape, to get away and make a new life for herself.

Cinderella is treated not just as a servant, but a slave by her family. In some versions of the tale her own father is alive and condoning the treatment of her. But she doesn’t let that tear her down, doesn’t let that destroy her. She manages to remain good and sweet and loving despite all the evils around her.

Beauty trades herself for her father’s freedom, but even before that her life is far from ideal. Her own family hates her, despises her, barely tolerates her. And yet she puts herself into an even worse situation because she loves her father- her dear, sweet father- and in that sacrifice she is able to find love. To find hope.

The Goose Girl is supposed to have nothing but goodness; is that not how the life is a fairy tale princess is supposed to go? But instead she is sent away from home- far, far away. She’s tricked into giving up her rightful place as princess and becomes nothing but a forgotten servants. Her only friend is killed so that she is really and truly alone. But she comes out on top. She never gives up and in the end she wins.

Rapunzel didn’t grow up in the tower, not in some of the original tales. She was sent there after she got older. She was just starting to grow and then her very life was taken away from her and replaced with a tiny tower cell. Later, the man she loves is taken from her too- cruelly, painfully- and in some versions she is left to give birth to twins on her own. But she succeeds in the end. She finds her husband and her family again.

Fight:

We’ve become washed with this idea in society today that women need to be strong and fierce. We have this idea of what that looks like and oftentimes we aren’t that person. We aren’t warriors.

Except fairy tales taught me that I am.

All the examples I gave have one very important thing in common- they never give up. Life puts them in the most horrible situations and they don’t stop. They don’t decide life is too much to live, they don’t stop hoping that goodness will come someday, they don’t give up.

You Will Survive:

A friend of mine sent me a graphic a while back the simply says “You’re strong and you’re able.” I made it my lock screen almost immediately and it has stayed the same ever since. Even after I got a new phone I downloaded the graphic again so that I could keep that reminder there where I needed it.

Life sucks. I’m not going to lie. Sometimes I look back on all I’ve been through and all it’s done to me and I marvel that I even got through it. I'm going to talk a little bit about what that has looked like for me next month but it won't even begin to cover it.

Why does life have to be so ridiculously hard?

I don’t have an answer to that question but I know that it gets better. You will survive. You will get through this as long as you make up your mind to. You don’t have to get through it today or tomorrow or even this month. But as long as you make up your mind to survive, I promise you that you will.

It’s Enough:

I feel like we’re told that fairy tale princesses do nothing. They’re passive, people say. They need to be more proactive, stronger, fiercer.

Most authors retelling Snow White give her a sword at some point. That makes her stronger, I think is the idea. They want Snow White to be a warrior.

But she already is.

She manages to escape the man her stepmother sent to murder her. She finds people that needs her and throws herself into make their house her home. She takes a situation filled with darkness and brings light to it. She not only survives, she thrives at a time when she was supposed to wither up and just stop living.

I don’t know what exactly anyone else’s definition of a warrior is, but Snow White is mine.

You Are Enough:

I like to think of my blog posts as love letters to a friend. You, my lovelies, are important to me and even when I’m talking about writing or freaking out about a book I just read, I think of every post as a conversation over tea. I think of us sitting across the table from each other, laughing and talking and enjoying life.

And as my friends I want you to know you are enough. Getting out of bed each morning on a day when staying in it seems like a better option is enough. Admitting you don’t have the strength to get out of bed to face the world and you need to stay in it for another minute or hour or even day is enough.

The fact that you are trying, the fact that you are fighting, the very fact that you are still breathing, your heart is still beating, is enough. You are enough.

You are a warrior not because you slay dragons but because you refuse to let them keep you down for long. You are a warrior because you try to slay them, no matter how exhausted you are, no matter how much your mind is telling you this is a battle you will never win. You keep trying.

And for today, that is enough.

Conclusion:

The saying goes that every girl dreams of being a princess. Maybe that isn’t actually true of every girl but I know that every girl can be one in the sense that every girl is a survivor.

Whether your life is like Snow White’s, Rapunzel’s, Cinderella’s, or someone else’s, it’s never dark enough that there is no longer hope. The sun will come again if you only hold on. You will survive. You are a warrior. You are strong and you are able and you will get through this.

So chin up, princess. The crown falls off if you don’t hold your head high.

But if it does slip, that’s okay. Just remember to pick it back up and start all over again. You can do this. Whatever today brings, you’re strong enough to face it.

I hope to see you on Wendesday for a special "First Day of NaNoWriMo" post. And if you haven't entered the Princess Tales giveaway there's still time!

Until the next time we meet, don’t forget to live happily ever after <3

~Jennifer Sauer, the Ivory Palace Princess

P.S. Let’s Chat! Who is your favorite fairy tale princess? In what ways has she inspired you?