Change the Narrative

Y'all Encanto fans might be mad at me for this one but....Maribelle left herself out that picture.

Hear me out. She didn't get a door as a child (Cassita you wrong for that) and has felt like an oddball in her family ever since. It'd be hard not to. But that narrative that she's not included ran so deep that she left herself out and then felt crushed.

They said, "family picture!" and she just stood there. She watched everyone else gather for the photo and desperately wanted them to notice she was missing, then was devastated when they didn't. I get that. Not dismissing it. And the reality is, she was the one that stood there.

What I'm trying to highlight is that we all have narratives we write about ourselves and our place in the world. We have very real and very good reasons for those narratives. And for most of us, they become so ingrained, so embedded, that we'll do things ourselves so we can stick to the same story. It's hard to see ourselves doing it but it happens.

We make things about other people when it's really how we see ourselves. That song at the end telling her, "we see how bright you shine", I guarantee you, MOST of the family had been trying to show her that her whole life (Isabel & Abuela probably not so much). Going out of their way to make sure she felt loved and special because she didn't have powers.

Heck, maybe even envying her because she wasn't expected to serve at the community’s beck and call each and every day. None of that mattered until she could begin to see herself differently.

So I ask you, how many pictures have you left yourself out of? How many times could you have begun to tell a different story if you stepped forward? We all have to find ways to write a different story if we don't like the one we're living.