Once Upon A Time…

“Once upon a time…”

I feel a certain sense of reverence when I read those words.

There’s power in Once Upon A Time.

It’s the promise of something magical; the promise of wonder and excitement and joy and tears and heartache.

It’s a new beginning.

It’s the first step down a path you’ve never traveled. The mystery of what lies ahead an irresistible pull you can’t deny.

Or perhaps it’s a path you’ve taken many times before, it’s the familiarity of an old friend. You know where this path goes, but you cannot help but to return to it again and again and again. You know the breathtaking highs and the heart wrenching lows. You know every single beautiful vista along this route. Every sunset. Every mountain top. Every tree in the forest.

Once Upon A Time can be absolutely anything. It can be a fairy tale. It can be a love story. It can be suspense and terror and abyssal horrors.

Once Upon A Time can be any time. It can be any place. It can be anyone.

Once Upon A Time is all the untapped potential of an empty canvas waiting for a masterpiece.

It could be a happy ending. Or one that leaves you devastated and weeping. Or both.

Once Upon A Time is the sun and the wind and the sky. It is the sands in the desert. It is waves in the ocean. It is grass in the fields. It is snow capped peaks and ancient forests. It is the stars in the sky and the black space between them. It is every fiber of our being. It is all of us.

Once Upon A Time is the song that all our hearts sing. It is a song of longing. It sings of yearning for adventure, of the freedom of the open road. It is a song of power. It slays the dragon. It is a song of belonging. Stories connect us. All stories had to start somewhere. And in my heart the beginning of all stories is Once Upon A Time.

There’s power in Once Upon A Time. Tread carefully, both reader and writer. For you never know where that power may take you.