Once Upon a Time

A friend gave me a copy of this TV series and I was

immediately hooked on #OUAT. While the storytelling can
sometimes fall short, the development of characters is
simply amazing!

The Evil Queen Regina, for all her meanness and hardness
of heart is someone very everyone can relate to. A
brokenhearted, vengeful — nay, resentful daughter–unable
to process her grief, her lack of individuation from her
mother, her longing for acceptance and understanding… and
later on, as she wanted to change, her loneliness, her lack of
intimate friends, her being an easy target because of the
same, her falling into the trap her own mother set up for
her, her struggle and courage to give up control… and how it
is easier to revert back to what is familiar than go on, how
hard it is without an existing support system. Heck, it is
impossible to go on with the journey without a support
system!

Or what about Mr. Gold–err, Rumpelstiltskin? His heart

melted at the outpouring of unexpected love and attention
from someone so unlike him — so opposite of him even. He
did not expect someone would be so interested in his story–
his interests, his desires, his treasure–in himself. Belle
caught him off guard. She caught his curiosity at first. Then,
she caught his heart.

Wow!
Just change some names and scenes but the story is almost
the same as those I hear and share at some anonymous
group meetings or testimonies in healing programs. For
many of us–our own addictions is indeed like magic! They
takes us to places where we could be all we wanted to be
even when it is not real. They compensate for our own lack
of courage or esteem or friends or all of that. They make us
forget the pain we bear. They make us feel secure, powerful
and okay even when things aren’t.

When the going gets tough it is easy to resort to “magic”!

Indeed, magical thinking is considered one of coping
mechanism of children. Many of us are still learning to grow
up and become adults–all never really became children and
need to grow up fast. None of that is an excuse–just plain
facts.

The lack we experience catch up with us. We try to get rid of

it any way we can only to realize that it is part of us–both the
good and the bad–the human and the wolf. But as the
mother of Ruby, the Red Riding Hood, puts it., only when
we accept the wolf in us can we have control over it.

Again, broken and blessed–both.

Like Regina, we need to remember who we really are before

we were broken. We need to be reminded. We need to
believe in what is good in us. For when we forget and start to
believe only in our lack and define ourselves around that, we
lose a lot. We lose our very selves and look at another as a
mirror to define who we are.
Oh and what about Cora–Regina’s mother–the Queen of
hearts? Her story is not yet told, but I must say that it must
be pretty bad to find satisfaction ripping out another’s heart
and control the whole being of another–to belong to her, I
must say she is the incarnation of a narcissist. Everyone has
to follow her wishes or else…! Perhaps she never really
belonged to someone and vice-versa…?

No matter. The thing is–this series makes a lot of sense

about reality and must have been so palatable because it is
told in fantasy.

It reminds us to remember that–once upon a time, before

our innocence was gone, we are all good and we shall live
happily ever after because, as the series always quote, good
always win!