With the passage of time, I have learned to no longer believe in fairy tales. I am at a stage in my life where the couples around me are in difficulty. Some are separating and many are questioning themselves. People of my generation got married in their twenties. After a more than decade of living together, the reality of daily life too often erodes the passion.
The story of Sleeping Beauty and her Prince Charming who lived happily ever after and had many children has failed to tell the story that life begins in struggles, birth, ends in struggles, death, and that it is filled with painful moments, storms and showers.
This is not a conclusion filled with sadness but a realization of what real life is: incredibly beautiful and sweet but very fragile and sometimes hard. Reality is not difficult to accept, it has always been here, it is our vision of the world that has to adjust. We need to wake up. I prefer to have a solid and authentic vision of life rather than living in a perishable dream.
Aware of this, I admire the sun that rises in the morning, the smile of my child, the presence of family and friends in the daily routine of our lives and I give them without counting, without waiting, all the love that is in my heart hoping that this protects us, but knowing that life reserves to each one us the hardship that will help us grow as human beings.
To all my friends who are going through a difficult time, remember that it takes sun and rain to create rainbows.
Thank you.
Martin Pham Dinh 