In the Disney story “Cinderella” there is a song that I continue to sing. It starts with one of the mice asking Cinderella, “What is a dream?” Her answer comes as a song: “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep.”
There have been many retellings of this story. But the common theme remains in that a young girl is living a life that she is trying to make the best of it, but she believes there could be something more.
Is it ok to dream? I mean it was a common pastime of my childhood. My mother would always say to me, “Jilly, you are such a day dreamer!” I wonder now when that changed? Or what happened that when I started reading stories like Cinderella, I began to believe that it is just that – a fairy tale.
Let’s face it, how many of us as children dreamed of finding a ‘handsome prince’ or riding off into the sunset? Or had some romantic idea of how life would look like when we ‘got older’.
I must admit that a few years ago I started to think about retirement. Turning 60 makes it feel that much closer and yes, I’m now a few years past that.
Is it too late to dream? To have ideas of where I want this next season of life to go?
I don’t believe so. There may be some dreams that I will need to let go of (being Miss Teen Canada for example is no longer an option). There may be other dreams that have come true but perhaps did not look like the on-screen version. Back to Cinderella – did you know that of all the fairy tales, it is the one that has been most ‘re-told’ of the more common tales? Movies, books, musicals – and even at the center of Disneyworld and Disneyland is her famous castle.
If you did not know, there is a new Cinderella movie about to be released at the time of this article. The preview on it asks a few questions like: “Do we really need another Cinderella movie?” “How many versions can you name and how many have you seen?” “What makes this storyline so popular?” (Click here for the answers to these questions.)
One conclusion is that there is an uplifting theme throughout the movie. From Whitney Houston telling Brandy that nothing is impossible to Lily James’ final words to her stepmother “I forgive you”, the theme of kindness rules and in the end, life is made beautiful because of it. And so that is my reason for wanting to be a modern Cinderella if you will. No, I do not have the same story line, but I do have dreams. And you are a part of making that dream come true – together let’s start by sparking the beauty that is within us and let’s bring about kindness and love to this world that so much needs a happy ending!