How culture affects relationships?

Is it just me, or does Disney have a lot to answer for?

Don't we all want our own "happily every after"?!

I remember as a kid thinking, " yes, this is the love I want to have"

And then somewhere along the way, through different relationships, with partners, family, friends, my children, I realised love comes in many different shades, and not always the fairy tale ideal I had pictured.

Love hurts, love tests, and love can be bitter sweet.

Nothing more then my relationship with Oliver has taught me more than that. 
Yes love can be all of these things....
but love is also the greatest healer, an opportunity to free yourself from pain, old wounds, and a wonderful chance to experience life and all your other relationships in a deeper, more meaning full, vibrant way.

And this is where, Disney and the fairy tale ideal falls short.

You see, we are shown a young princess, has a strapping prince arrive, save her, sweep her off her feet, they fall madly in love and boom....they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.

But Is this just setting us up for a fail?

Do we need another to save us? 
Do we need another to complete us? 
Is our only chance of happiness for filled when it's shared with another?

My answer is no.

Love begins with you, and your relationship with yourself period.
Love needs ownership and responsibility. 
Love grows from acknowledgment for our good bits and our bad bits so that we might be able to learn, heal and grow from them.

Our short falls, previous hurts, fears, so easily become a narrative in which we use to keep us from fully opening up our hearts to give and receive love, and yet the only person that misses out here, is us.

So rather then viewing a relationship as "what can I gain from this person", "what is this person giving me", "how does this person define me"? 
Perhaps it would be better to view it as "what can this person teach me about myself", "what am I looking to heal with this person"

And this is why, love, isn't a hippy, fairly tale ideal, or some woo woo "love and light" falsehood, it's our innate spiritual call to return and Remember who we are. 
At the core of us, there is only love, and all the separation, fear and illusion in between is all that we need to forget and leave behind.

So actually Disney, you can keep your princess and your prince, because I know that Oliver doesn't complete me, or is here to save me; but rather that he's here to remind me of who I am, and help me find wholeness within myself.

He's here to help me heal my wounds, and experience the vast spectrum of love, and to know and understand separation only comes from I and the ego, and we are all deeply connected and beat as one.

The more I see of me..... the more I love me means the more I am able to see and love another, and that folks, is a beautiful thing. ❤️

Bex xxx