Dear Mandy,

I’m 38 years old and starting to give up hope. I’ve dated nothing but one loser after another, all my friends are married with children, and there are no romantic prospects in sight. Sometimes I feel like the last single girl left on the face of the earth. I’m starting to lose faith in Happy Endings the way I lost faith in Santa Claus when I was a young girl. My friends all tell me I’m too picky and that I should just settle for Mr. Good Enough instead of holding out for Mr. Right.

It’s Christmas. Please tell me the truth. Are there such things as Happy Endings, or just endings?

Signed,
Blue Christmas in Virginia

My dear Virginia,

Your friends are wrong. They have been affected by statistics and stereotypes and even their own cynical mindsets about Happy Endings. They do not believe in what they have not experienced…and those who settle often can’t fathom the uncertainty of holding out for any other outcome. You see, it takes faith and trust and hope to believe in Happy Endings…and some people simply aren’t brave enough to allow themselves to trust in what they have not seen or experienced. They might even dismiss the idea of Happy Endings as trite and impossible and nonsensical kid stuff…maybe even tell you Happy Endings only happen “in the movies”…ever forgetting that more often than not, art imitates life rather than vice versa.

Yes, Virginia, there ARE Happy Endings. They exist as certainly as love and joy and magic exist, and though you can’t physically SEE those things, you know that they abound and give to your life its highest purpose and calling. Alas! How dreary life would be if there were no Happy Endings. It would be as dreary as if there were no hopeful single women. There would be no romance, no fairytales, no wishes upon stars to make enjoyable this existence. We would have nothing to dream about, to pray for, to believe in…except for the things we could physically see and touch. The joyous glow with which the words “Once Upon a Time” and “Happily Ever After” fill our hearts would be extinguished by doubt, and cynicism, and disbelief.

Not believe in Happy Endings! You may as well not believe in Romeo & Juliet…or Cinderella & Prince Charming…or Jack & Rose. You might even be tempted to look around at some of the men you’ve dated and start to believe that because all you’ve met are “Mr. Right Nows” that “Mr. Right” doesn’t exist…but what does that prove? Because there is no sign of a Happy Ending, you’re doomed to never experience one? Remember, Virginia, all it takes is ONE moment to change EVERY moment after. The most amazing meetings in life tend to happen right at the moment you’re about to give up hope…why, because some great big cosmic figure was up there laughing hysterically at you being tortured and tormented by the waiting? No, because every second of the waiting was preparing you for the one who has been patiently waiting for you. No mind can begin to conceive all the wondrous ways love has of arriving at your door…more often than not, when you least expect it.

You may dissect the human heart and see in great detail what makes it tick…but love goes far deeper than what we can see with our eyes. There is no stopwatch that can say when it is too late for love to find us…because such a deadline does not exist. As long as there are human hearts beating on this earth, and eyes that can lock for the first time, and hands that can form to another human being’s as though they were two puzzle pieces designed to fit perfectly together…there will be Happy Endings. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, I’d dare say there is nothing more real than finding your forever in the eyes of another.

A thousand years from now, Virginia…even TEN thousand years from now…Happy Endings will continue to find single women, just like you, and what once was one…will become two.  

Happy Endings! Thank God they exist…and delight…and enchant us, inspire us, encourage us, push us to believe and hope and trust in something much bigger than ourselves. Just like Christmas. And just like Santa Claus

Merry Christmas to you, Virginia…and to all hopeful single women out there, brave enough to believe...
Mandy