Sometimes reality is more interesting that happily ever after.

I need to say first that I love Bernadette Peters. She is a tremendous actress.

How is it that people get in there head that life is supposed to be ever after? Do their parents just not tell them that ever after only makes for good movies when you are a kid? Do they not know that the life is worth more than ever after?

One of the reasons that I love Into the Woods, is the second act. How funny is it that once Cinderella, finds her fella, only to find out that he is dull, without wit, lives in a big lonely castle with nothing to do except chase princesses? Hurray, she got the guy with the house and the sisters are permanently punished, but really, what is that worth? Why is that happily ever after?

I don't know that I have ever had ever after. Maybe there was some of that before I was pubic, but I don't really remember much of it so who knows. I remember the creamery on the dairy farm with the real homemade ice cream. That is about it. Then I was 13. It was all over but the crying. Especially for the folks.

My friend who is very...not good right now, has a perception that I did it. I got the ever after. I found God, again. (Turns out he wasn't lost and so not so hard to find.) I don't drink, smoke or meddle in others affairs. I learned how to pay my bills. I learned how to get a good job. I learned how to take care of me. Now, I married a great man. I am in school for a great job. From the outside looking in: everafter.

She got her heartbroken by a scumbag of a boyfriend, so she thinks I have everything. The reality is that I work very, very hard. The reality is that it takes lots of effort on my part not to lose it on a daily basis. When I am juggling all the balls of life in the air, inevitably, I drop one. I have to search around and pick it up. I have to work to realign with God's will and in the meanwhile, continue juggling with one hand. She thinks ever after is Cinderella, dressed in yella. She thinks I am Cinderella.

I am not.

Neither is she.

We are not supposed to be. Cinderella is a story. A childhood tale with no purpose. I don't think Cinderella ever worked for what she got. I have busted my butt for what I have. I had to learn how to pray and juggle.

I like juggling. Praying is easier than juggling, so sometimes I take it for granted. I hope my friend hasn't given up praying, because I think Meredith Grey is right: reality is better than everafter. There are joys and sadness and intimacies with God. I get to love and hurt and learn to forgive. Gosh that is a hard one. I am working on that right now: forgiving. Gosh that is hard. It is not everafter.

I can't imagine doing the things I do with out a daily walk with Christ.

Maybe she just thinks she is alone. No one is alone. Even when I think I am alone, and making terrible mistakes...We are not alone, no one is alone. Maybe I need to let her know that she is not alone. Let her know that it is going to be okay. She is going through this terrible heartache so that she can help someone else to know that they are not alone: give her an opportunity to pass it on.

God's reality is not everafter, it is so much better.