Oh, Happily Ever After,

..........Wouldn't you know? Wouldn't you know?

Oh, skip to the ending.

Who'd like to know? I'd like to know!

Author of the moment, can you tell me,

do I end up, do I end up happy?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's a secret you've never thought:

Happily ever afters don't take place in a wedding dress. 

They don't take place at graduation or on the medal stand or at the finish line,

Not after the perfect game or the winning shot or the performance of your life.

There are times in our lives where we are just so full of happiness and love and joy that we think nothing could ever compare, and sometimes we feel sad that those times have passed, have gone. We might think we've missed it, the Happily Ever After, and we are just "ever after" forever. 

But really, we just have to remember that "Happily Ever After" doesn't mean "the end."

It means "the beginning."

So tell yourself to stop dreaming about the good times that long since passed. Stop wishing for those long-awaited days to just come sooner. Your happily ever afters aren't defined by any one moment, but rather, by all the moments in between. It's the string on a strand of Christmas lights, holding all the good parts of your life together, growing longer and longer as you live until it reaches the ultimate happily ever after: eternal life.

So for those who are waiting for a happily ever after to be found: you've already found it. Keep living the right way and you'll begin to see it more and more as you do.

And for those who think they've already accomplished a happily ever after and have nothing left to live for: You're not finished yet, and there's so much more out there for you to experience. Happily Ever Afters never end, so don't let go.

And for those who don't think it's possible for happily ever afters to be out there: don't give up. It's there, right before you, and it's in all the moments of your life through and in between the ones you'd like to call "big" or "important." It also comes from within you. It's within you, within me, within everyone. 

In every storybook, the "happily ever after" always comes at the end. But it's not really the end; it's the beginning. It's the story itself, just wrapped up into one little sentence. And it doesn't just make the difference, it is the difference. 

I believe in Happily Ever Afters.