“’It could well be a trap.’  He wanted to scoff in her face and turn right around.  Let them find another way in, past the magic wards that surrounded it.  But then Sage stumbled.  He watched closely as she giggled and stumbled again, this time looking to the sky and shaking her head with a light smile, glowing.  Unafraid to laugh at herself, unafraid to look upon her missteps with anything but a brave sort of joy.  She took each moment of her life with a natural good humor, no matter how painful, no matter how tragic.  She trekked on with nothing but her will.  No magic to protect her.  Just faith and optimism and belief in her survival.  Being a cynic doesn’t make you wise.  It makes you a coward,” Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Apprentice to the Villain. First things first—I can’t tell you how much fun I have had reading this series by Maehrer.  This is book 2 and book 3 doesn’t come out until August and that feels cruel 😊.  Any-who.  Without giving too much background detail, this particular passage stood out to me beyond the humor of the book.  The content of the book has some dark topics, some truly painful moments of betrayal and real physical hurt.  But this character continues, no matter what, to see the good and the possibility in life.  She refuses to believe what people believe about themselves—she believes what she sees in them, what they have done.  The other part of this is not allowing the pain of the past dictate how we behave in the present.  She surrounds herself with some fairly vengeful people but understands they may do bad things for good reason.  That is enough for her.

Life can deal some pretty crappy hands sometimes and it doesn’t always feel good.  We have the choice to let it drown us, to constantly see the world watered down and hopeless.  We also have the choice to look up and find the good in every circumstance, to see the light the world offers even in the dark corners.  The character Sage has nothing to protect herself beyond her body but she still goes into the world and trusts she will be fine and can handle what comes her way.  The character of the Villain has magic to protect him but he was condemned for it and hurt for it so he took that power and refused to let anyone hurt him or anyone else again.  She took her gifts for what they are, never asking for more.  He took his gift and learned to use dark for good even if it gave him a bad name.  Here is the thing: perspective is all that matters.  For even kings hurt their people for the bottom line, claiming it is the name of the greater good when it is for their personal gain. Sometimes it is the one who stands against the crowd, the one who offers the truth no matter how ugly, no matter how dirty they get in the process.  Sometimes it is the things we fear that bring in the light.  In any case, how we view the situation and what we do with that information, how we act, how we view the world, the people around us with what we know—that is what matters.  The names people give us mean nothing, how we act means everything.

There are people who let the events of their lives bring them down—and in some cases, that is rightly so.  I mean, it would be expected to have a fairly sour outlook in those cases.  But there are people who no matter what comes their way, they seem to carry no weight on their shoulders.  They operate differently because they see the world differently.  Their training is to see the light no matter how dark.  The secret is that in having that view point, they often become the light.  Many people fear that and try to dim it.  But those are the people hiding behind their fear.  Those are the people hiding from the light because they fear they will either be exposed or see something they don’t want to see.  And that can be true.  But the truth, while painful in some aspects, is always exactly what it is.  There is no room for interpretation—it is nothing more than the facts.  It isn’t meant to be cruel, it is meant to level the playing field for all.  We can be joyful in difficult times, and in sad times.  We can take the challenges and see the good. But we don’t have to let the events of our lives define how we feel—even if we’ve felt that way a long time.  We can change that viewpoint.  The light isn’t meant to hurt us—it is meant to bring the truth to the surface for all to see.  We don’t always see the results or the full picture.  But we always have our faith and can choose to move forward with natural good humor no matter how painful, no matter how tragic.  Just have faith and optimism and belief in our survival as our character says.  Cynicism will break us because it makes us brittle not strong.  The ability to be hurt and remain soft is the mark of true strength.  Don’t hide behind it–move gently and with truth and the view of the world changes.