My Quest: How to live an enchanted life inspired by books

Cecilia North vs Reality.

My name is Cecilia North and I am a witch, living inside an ancient oak tree, where I spend my time conjuring enchanted worlds and beasts from my ancient scrolls. 

Or not.

Reality is a bitch and I am her slave. At least right now. But I plan to change that. I plan to fight back, to rise up and sword fight reality to the best of my capabilities. I want a fantastical life. I want magic and enchantment and like any good protagonist I know it is up to me.

So, this is my quest. This is where it begins. Come join me, won’t you?

This is what we are up against:

In reality I am probably a lot like you. I have a  job. A husband. Kids. An apartment with a tv and tea kettle. It’s not like I don’t appreciate this. I have love and I make enough money to buy the new spiderman bike my 4-year-old wants for his birthday. A part of me feels that I am doing the right thing, the thing my mother taught me: To be reasonable. Make the good choices, that means you are comfortable. 

And I am proud. I took a long education and I got a job like I was supposed to. Not the one I dreamed of as a kid, but something reasonable. I found a good man who loves me and supports me and I do my best to raise my boys to be kind and tackle their struggles with bravery. 

So in the fairy tales, this is where the story ends. This is my happy-ever-after.

But, and there is a but, somewhere on this long even road I began whitering. It’s not about the people in my life, because I want them with me every step of the way, but I want more. *que little mermaid song* – nananana, part of that world! 

Silliness aside for a second I am not going to end the fairy tale because I grew up. I want the crazy, weird and wondrous in my life again. I want to combat routine and to be that witch in the oak tree. 

So let’s make that happen.

Bringing the magic from the books into my life

If you are an avid reader like me, then there is another world than the one you live in right now. A world hidden within the pages of your favorite books. It is where you love to go when things are tough, or dull or just because you adore that escape into something different and adventurous.

I don’t want to settle for reading about it. So how do I bring some of that epicness into my life?

I am going to do what literary heroines and heros do. I am going to start a quest. Over the next few years I am going to induce reality with fantasy by setting different challenges for myself. As I don’t have massive amounts of money I will have to craft and diy most things, but if mice can stitch a ballgown I am pretty sure I can create something magical too. 

In the absence of a fairy wand I will take little steps, hopefully everyday, to wrap my world in myth and all my favorite stories, like Harry Potter, Pride and prejudice, Frankenstein, the sagas of norse mythology and new and ancient fairy tales. 

The Quest: 

Here is a short list of things I plan to do on my mission: 

• Make my home into a lair of fantasies. (No that isn’t referring to anything r-rated. Get your mind out of the gutter).
• Go on adventures: I want to fall to my death, climb a mountain and have a fortune teller give me a prophecy. 
• Dress out of this world: I want to wear elf ears and cloaks and regency gowns – the weirder the better. 
• Eat my books – not literally, but I want to try all the deliciousness described in my favorite stories – butterbeer, a drink me – shot and green eggs and ham. 
• Bookish parenting – playing with my kids, building space rockets and viking ships. 
• Dating the devil – let’s face it, men are rarely as romantic as that hunky werewolf in that guilty pleasure novel you gobbled up. I am modern enough to take charge, so I want to have fairy tale date nights, and I don’t mind taking the initiative. 
• Read inspiring stories: Never stop reading and feeding the imagination. 
• Paint: Canvas, walls body, paint it all over. 
• Find like-minded idiots: There is no quest without a fellowship. If, like me, you want to battle reality or you know someone who brings the extraordinary into the ordinary. Then reach out to me or join me.

And last but not least: I will write my own fantasy novel. No it’s not a metaphor. I want to write my own book. 

I hereby declare this Quest series to be named:

Cecilia North vs Reality

Because – yeah fuck reality! #Mevsreality