Did you ever live the fairy tale? Did you ever have a period in your life when you were the prince or princess and you lived in a castle and you had animal friends and it was always sunny and things just fit in their places perfectly? 

I grew up a princess. I remember learning in 2nd grade that my name meant princess in Hebrew and really I was never the same. I had a canopy bed growing up and I lived on this idyllic street 

in this perfect house. I met prince charming when I was 18 and life just fell into place. Oh, there were a few bumps, but it’s easy enough to edit those out. 

Did you ever have a fairy tale like that? Did it ever fall apart? 

Growing up feels like hard work sometimes. I want the fairy tale to be true and it just isn’t. Life can be hard work. There is more pain and more joy than I anticipated and it can be exhausting. I’m overwhelmed some moments by just how terrifying it can be to keep going. Not that there is an option, but it can be overwhelming just the same. 

Do you ever have those moments? The ones where your breath is taken away and it’s all you can do to keep trying to breathe? 

They hit me every now and then, these moments of sheer fear. And I swear they are evil incarnate. They question everything in my life and taunt me with the possibility (probability in their world) that it all might fall apart. 

Oh. These moments are so exhausting. All I can do is breathe. I’m struck by how much courage it takes sometimes just to breathe.