2. Once Upon a Time There Was You Three Magic Secrets to Finding Your Real Self by Maia Merril Berens Part One The Story

3. Once upon a time there was me…

4. This is a story about a child like every other child.

5. Somewhere in a town much like yours, was born a very special little girl.

6. When she was born, the sky filled with rainbows and stars, and angels hovered all around – just like when any child is born anywhere.

7. This little girl was a very sparkly and star-like baby. Like all little children born everywhere, she truly glowed with Power.

8. Many magical and mystical qualities instantly shined from her little face the moment she was born.

9. She was bright with curiosity and luminous with intelligence. She was a baby sorceress of joy.

10. Her loving heart made people around her either fall in love with each other all over again -- or some found love for the very first time.

11. Her enrapturing, funny sense of humor sent everyone into gales of giggles. Rainbows and stars and angels surrounded her with no end in sight.

12. One and all that saw her, lit up. Just being with her, just visiting, just seeing her in her baby bed made the adults want to hurry home and have more babies. She made them want to go home and write books, go home and write poems. That’s who she was.

13. What happened to her happens to most children born time without end.

14. As the little girl grew, her well-meaning mother obscured her little girl’s light in many, many ways. In times past, her mother’s light had also been dimmed in countless ways.

15. Without meaning to hurt her little girl, without wanting to do it, but by just not knowing better and not being able to help herself, it happened anyway.

16. The rainbows and stars began to disappear and rain clouds started to take their place. The angels had a hard time getting close to her.

17. And her father’s light was different -- more illuminated in some ways but murkier in others. He tried. He wanted her light to stay bright but he didn’t know how to keep it so. And in his way, a really deep and dark way, he almost crawled inside her and dimmed her light from inside.

18. As the years went by, many people, mostly well- meaning, kept casting clouds on the little girl’s light. They told her she needed to be different than she was. She ended up feeling dull and lightless.

19. Thus the little girl decided that when she was all grown up, she would get married because movies and TV promised that marriage would brighten everyone’s light and everyone would live happily-ever-after.

20. So, she set out to the college of her mother’s choice where the right kind of boy could be found to marry and who would, just like in the movies, brighten her light. Instead of finding a young man boy light who was bright, joyful, beautiful, she found a boy whose light had also been dimmed and tarnished in numerous ways by many people and untold events.

21. They married, thinking they could have a bright and happy future. But they could not. Darkness does not beget light.

22. Soon they had some children who were all born with the same joy and light and beauty and rainbows surrounded by angels as their parents and grandparents -- and your parents and your grandparents --were all born with, too.

23. Their parents loved them very, very much and never intentionally beclouded their light – but nevertheless, it came to pass.

24. One day after years of painful darkness, the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl-Who-Was-the-Light decided to take herself and her children away. She was afraid that if she stayed in that dark marriage any longer her light would become extinguished and she’d never again see another rainbow or star or speak with the angels.

25. She didn’t have even a glimpse of what their future could be – not a hint, not a whisper. But she took the children and she started all over again -- not as a child with the light and the joy and the curiosity fully lit fully bright surrounded by rainbows and stars, but as a woman who secretly prayed that the connection that she’d always had to the Power had never gone away. She held within her heart the vision that she might have rainbows instead of rain clouds surrounding her and her children once again.

26. One day as she and her children were starting to get used to living in more light, she met her Wise Fairy God Mother. Her Wise Fairy God Mother had already walked on the path out of the darkness and into the light and was completely surrounded by rainbows with nary a rain cloud in sight.

27. The Wise Fairy God Mother told the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl to call her for ten minutes every day at ten minutes after eight. She told her if she did this and never forgot, she would learn Three Magic Secrets and many miraculous things would happen including rainbows and stars. And as they spoke, little rainbows began to appear mixed in with the rain clouds.

28. Another day the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl was driving down the street and some terrible monster crashed and dented her car. The Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl was dreadfully upset and dreadfully afraid. She acted as if she were still in the dark. She was so used to the dark. All she could see were rain clouds.

29. The very next day when she called her Wise Fairy God Mother at ten minutes after eight, she told her Wise Fairy God Mother all about it; how the monster hit her car and dented it; how she was afraid and dreadfully upset; how there were no more little rainbows, just rain clouds once again.

30. Her Wise Fairy God Mother listened with loving ears and asked the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl a question that contained the first of the 3 Magic Secrets. The Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl had never heard such a question in response to her fear. In her life before, the-Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl had only heard more fear and anger. The Wise Fairy God Mother asked, “ And what did you learn ?”

31. Something very magical began to happen in the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl. She began to brighten. Her love and joy and beauty began to show. Her children began to brighten too because no matter what happened, she asked herself, “And what did I learn?” Bigger and bigger rainbows followed them wherever they went.

32. With everything that happened to her, she asked herself, “ What did I learn ?” and her life got more and more beautiful with more and more rainbows and stars everyday and everywhere. She heard lots of messages from the angels, too. Her Wise Fairy God Mother had taught her Magic Secret #1 – Life Is a School.

33. One morning when the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl thought she must be ready to know, she asked her Wise Fairy God Mother, “What is the next Magic Secret?” As she was asking the question she realized the answer - from the very first contact with her Wise Fairy God Mother, she had already been given She realized that going through life with someone who cares and listens and wants to share is another of the three promised secrets. And she understood that everyone can have a Wise Fairy God Mother or Wise Fairy God Father to go along with them on the journey of life. They need only ask. Magic Secret #2 – Friend In-Deed.

34. Life being what life is, every day was filled with challenges and obstacles along with joys and happiness. The Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl found that even though she had learned Magic Secret #1 and Magic Secret #2 , there was still something missing. Sometimes it was as if an old pair of dark glasses found its way onto her nose. Even though she knew there were rainbows and stars and that the angels were always near, everything looked kind of dark.

35. There was still a place inside that felt like it needed to be filled with something. That’s when her Wise Fairy God Mother knew it was time to teach her Magic Secret #3 – My Cup Runneth Over. She taught her to be grateful for everything that happens. She told her to take a piece of paper and a pencil and start to write down everything for which she was grateful. She told her if she kept on writing, eventually she would find that her old dark glasses would magically disappear and she would see only the brightness of the rainbows and stars and the ever-present angels.

36. And what the Woman-Who-Was-the-Girl understood was, with those Three Magic Secrets , she could find the sparkle, find the light, find the joy, find who she was when she was very first born.

37. If you want to find the sparkle, the light, the joy, find who you were when you were very first born, all you need to do is use the Three Magic Secrets. Magic Secret #1 – Life Is a School Magic Secret #2 – Friend In-Deed Magic Secret #3 – My Cup Runneth Over And with those Magic Secrets you too will discover how to find the sparkle, the light, the joy, find who you were when you were very first born.

38. The Three Magic Secrets will teach you too how to find the light.

39. Once upon a time there was you…

40. If you’d like to hear the story read to you, click on icon below or click on the arrow. Expect to spend about 10 minutes. CLICK WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED LISTENING TO THE STORY AND YOU ARE READY TO MOVE ON.

41. You are now ready for Part Two: The Questions of Once Upon a Time There Was You: Three Magic Secrets to Finding Your Real Self