Waking Up...

If mourning becomes Electra, what becomes Evangeline? Ironically, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem of this name is about a girl searching for her lost love during the time of Great Upheaval. In history, that would have been the forced population transfer between 1755 and 1763 of the French Acadian population from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (known as Acadie to the French) to other British-controlled colonies. In my own life, this time of Great Upheaval has forced me to search for a deeper kind of love--a love of self. Until this upheaval, I never really knew my self was lost. It's become increasingly apparent to me that it was...

If I went back to the very beginning, what kind of girl would I meet there? From what I can tell, she laughed--a lot. She laughed and she loved in equal measure. She loved pretty things; she still does. She loved to be loved; she still does. She always had a song in her heart; she still does. She was loyal and true; she still is.

But like a princess in a fairy tale, she has been enchanted. It is time for her to wake up. It is time for her to reclaim the pieces she left behind, the ones who made her who she is but have long-since been locked away and forgotten. Deep in the treasure chest of her heart, the jewels of her true self wait to be re-discovered. Who will she be when she finds them again?

I suspect...she will be the heroine of her own story.