FAIRY TALES
by Nina Roberta Baker ~~~~ June 28, 1995

Deep within the heart of many women, dwells a little girl who waits. Half eager because she clings to her beliefs... Half fearful because life has unfolded into a reality that refutes the wonder and innocence that once allowed such phenomenological ideas to seem possible.... Half of her, regrets the loss of that sweet, pure expectation of innocence and `happily ever after' assuredness...   Half of her, mourns with maturity and firm recognition that there really are
no such things as fairy tales are made of....

Yet, she waits and listens....
sometimes, so secretly that she herself doesn't know it...
She waits for the sound of hooves that will bring her Prince Charming or Lancelot into view on the horizon of her life.... Even when she has learned to rescue, protect and love her own self..... a part of her longs for him to come and find her.    Not because she NEEDS him to come, but she WANTS him to.

She wants to be THE ONE that he is looking for,
just as he is the one she is waiting for.   It is HER prince she awaits! There may be many other princes available,   but in that secret place - there is a certain expectation  that there is ONE... just one true match... and there is but one lifetime for them to find each other.

As the years go by, the hope dims but the seed of faith waits to spring to life if he should arrive and water her garden where it can grow.

The woman knows how foolish little girls are.
The world is so large.   Too large, in fact, to allow any credibility to the traces of that longing that it really will happen.   It is silly.

There was only ONE Adam, and One Eve which was taken from him.... she tells herself.... or is that given to us to understand that we long for a reunion with.....   NO!!! ......... It can't be!   It's just a romantic, silly notion put into the heads of little girls and boys....
Right?

Neither the little girl, the little boy, the man, or the woman,
ever feel 100% positive either way...
and so that secret place remains within them...

I cannot, of course, speak for the little boys... for I am not one.
I suspect though...they may long for the tender, gentle fragility of their little princess who will come to them as eager and fearless as exquisitely beautiful butterflies who light upon flower petals and drink the sweet nectar there in the midst.       In their `secret place' I do believe they may long for the finding of their princess....

Deep within the heart of some men, within that secret place, there probably dwells a little boy who longs with innocence, to tenderly receive that trust and delicateness of his feminine counterpart... where he can be soft and tender.... ever so gentle... and all the other things that the world teaches little boys that men should not be???
He may wish that his princess will one day come to his outstretched arms, just as a hummingbird might come to accept the proffered invitation of his extended finger and land thereupon... if he were to beckon it that way...  Utterly vulnerable, yet trusting, 
it might come to him and he would feel its' delicacy 
as it fluttered to rest upon the support he offered...
He would then experience the whispery touch of its' wings and the unimaginable frailty entrusting itself to be sustained,  even if only for a few moments in time....... by him.   Both he and the tiny `bird' would know that he could easily either nurture and protect, or crush and destroy its' entire substance in that one moment - and that knowledge is what makes the choice of trust so sweetly precious.
I think perhaps, there lies within the heart of every man, a little boy
who wants to be safe to be that gentle and loving without fear of losing or exchanging his manhood for the emotions he longs to feel and share.  
He wants to be worthy of,  and given,  that trust...
 of a so delicate a thing  as a princess....

Often, men and women, little girls and little boys,  accept other princes and princesses into their lives thinking that they will fill that secret emptiness.    Loneliness is a compelling thing, after all!  Sometimes those `others' are frogs!   Or biting, stinging insects of all kinds!
Some are even deadly, harmful beasts!   
Some bring great pain.
Some merely occupy a space and prevent anything 
from easing the emptiness that gnaws....

Some of us will continue the search even unto our last day...
Some will decide to withdraw  and fill their lives with other things... 
Some will manage quite well to deny or ignore  that secret empty place...
And some won't.
But some.... YES, SOME,
actually WILL find and fill that place with a love that fits...

No matter what any of us says...
the place is there and we want it filled.

We would do well to trust the longing and be more courageous in searching,
for there REALLY  IS, only one.....

If......

you believe in fairy tales, that is...............

?
Nina Roberta Baker