I just entered the Hay House Writers Community Book Proposal contest on June 5th, for the third time. Third time’s the charm, right?!
Originally titled, Mirror, Mirror ~ A Girl’s Guide to Cultivating Good enough-ness in a World Full of Fairytales is now: Good Enough-ness ~ A Girl’s Guide to Being – and Loving – Her Whole, Glorious Self. I’m super excited!
Here’s a little except:
~THIS IS YOUR FAIRY TALE~
~Once Upon A Time
ONCE UPON A TIME… you were born. And the magic of that day has been with you ever since.
The magic of Love.
More Love than you’ve ever imagined, came to life the day YOU were born.
The magic of Gumption.
The realization you can do hard things and that hard doesn’t have to equal horrible.
The magic of Dreams Do Come True.
Your willingness to believe in miracles.
The magic of You.
The wonder and giddiness that you’re alive and chose to be here now,
in this time, and in this place.
So it’s no surprise you’ve been invited to the Ball, the biggest, most glorious dance that is your Life.
The invitation is right there on the kitchen counter. It wasn’t there when you left for school this morning…. But we’re dealing with magic and magic can be tricky—it knows things, and so, even though the invitation was written for you the day you were born, it’s been invisible till now. Because now, the magic of You knows it’s time.
Time to wake up, my Beauty, time to become even more YOU.
Curious, you step closer. Yep, that’s your name, written in gold embossed lettering right there on the envelope. Your heart’s thumping with excitement, with anxiety, with the wonderful scariness of the unknown as you pick up the invitation and hold it in your hands staring at it, wondering if you should open it, or not.
It’s so pretty the way it is, the envelope glossy, as you trace the perfectly written gold letters of your name. Maybe you’ll just put the unopened invitation on your bookshelf and stare at it, or tuck it under your pillow and dream and wonder about it. Maybe you’ll toss it in the trash. You don’t know yet if your friends are going. What if they play music you don’t like? It’s a Ball and you’ve never been to a Ball before. Everyone will be beautiful and know all the steps to the dance, the dance you haven’t learned yet. Your friends will laugh at you if you even try—they know you have two left feet. And what do you even wear to a Ball? A ball gown? You don’t own a ball gown or glass slippers. And your hair’s a mess. You’re a mess…. Who wants to go to a stupid Ball anyway?
You put the envelope back on the kitchen counter and go to your room to do your homework, trying to forget you were even asked to the Ball.
OR…
You carefully open the invitation knowing you’ve never been to a Ball before, but also knowing if you let yourself, you might actually have fun. You Love music after all, it doesn’t matter what kind they play, you’ll dance to anything. None of your friends own ball gowns either, and who cares if they laugh because they’ll be laughing with you, not at you—they don’t know the steps to the dance any better than you do. And why wouldn’t you go? It’s an opportunity to try something new and you’re all about trying new things these days even when they’re a little scary because you won’t know if you like something until you try it. And you want to be that kind of girl, the kind who’s not afraid to step out of her comfort zone… at least, some of the time. Also, you know from experience you can do hard things, even if it is just showing up at a dance. You’ll wear your favorite sneakers and t-shirt and jeans. You’ll pull your hair back into a ponytail like you always do.
And you’ll show up….
Everything begins with Choice.
You may choose to open the invitation… or not.
What I want you to know is that this invitation to your Life, to becoming even more you, it doesn’t ever go away.
Another invitation will come, and another, and another until you’re ready to take the riskiest leap of faith there is and follow your heart, and stop listening to your head and all its overthinking in trying to keep you safe.
Know that LIFE will continue asking because it wants you to say, Yes, to its invitation, Yes, to all its wonders, to all its opportunities, to all its trials and tribulations….
We live in a land of not good enough-ness, mean girls, incessant social media chatter, and the ever present need to be perfect, to strive, to be all that you can be, to be all that you can be for everyone else.
You can decide to dutifully sit in the carriage, following the rules, living up to other people’s expectations, as your carriage careens through the woods to the castle. For some, this might be the adventure, the time of your life, and exactly the next right thing.
For others a different choice is to be made, one where they decide to step off the carriage and create their own path.
The thing to always remember? There is no right or wrong. This is your fairy tale ~ your Life ~ you can write your own story.
That’s what this is book is ~ an invitation.
An invitation to leave behind the terrifyingly real statistics low self-esteem has created.
An invitation to rewrite your fairy tale through a journey of self-discovery and the KNOWING in your bones and in your heart and soul that you are good enough, that you matter, and that you make a difference–in your own life, in the lives of your loved ones, in the world at large–just by being you. That’s the magic of every fairy tale, the discovery of Self and what that means—to you.
A couple of things you need to know as we journey through this fairy tale:
I believe the Universe is a benevolent place, and thus, things happen for you, not to you.
I believe that the mystery of this thing called LIFE is wide, and deep, and delicious, and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you won’t ever understand the why of something.
I believe leaving room for mystery and living a life from a foundation of gratitude and joy helps the why become less weighty and more manageable and allows us to dance through this Life with a bit more wonder and awe, a bit more magic.
I believe that we each have the potential within us to grow and change and transform into the best version of ourselves in any given moment, on any given day, and that this transformation begins and continues with SELFLove and Compassion.
I believe in fairy tales, and that dreams do come true.
And I believe for your dreams to come true, you need to be willing to allow them to come true by keeping your heart wide open, and your mind too. Dreams don’t always show up the way you think they’re supposed to look, or feel, or taste.
Sometimes dreams take a lot of hard work to make come true.
Sometimes it’s as if your Fairy Godmother waved her magic wand, and poof! your dream appears all sparkly and new, waiting for you to hop aboard.
Sometimes your dream is the beast waiting to be seen for its true self.
Sometimes the cost of your dream hurts (you’ve heard of growing pains.)
Sometimes you have to dive deep into your own story and write your dreams into life with every word on every page.
Sometimes you have to venture far from home to follow your dream….
But no matter where your dreams take you, know:
You have the magic within you to always find your way home,
to always find your way back to yourself.
Life is about choices and experiences and what you choose to do and how you choose to be within those choices and experiences. It’s true, you may not have control over the fairy tale you’re the Heroine in, but you do get to choose how you want the story to go.
This is your Life, your fairy tale. You can simply move through the pages of the book, or you can be an active Force of Nature and allow the sunlight to pour through filling you up with joy and gratitude and the knowledge that you get to write your own happily ever after.
Be the storm that rages through and washes away the old and the ick, a rainbow of possibilities ahead.
Be the earth that shakes things up, shifting perspectives so you can see things more clearly.
Be the fire that cleanses as it burns things to ash, only to be reborn, more whole.
Be the gentle rain that rejuvenates, so that life can grow and thrive….
Who’s the Fairest of Them All?
You are.
And you.
And you.
And you ….
We are all the fairest of them all—some of us have just forgotten, or never learned, this utter absolute truth, that:
You Matter.
You are Good Enough.
You are Loved.
YOU can make your own Dreams Come True.
This is YOUR fairytale.
You get to write your own happily ever after.
