Don't give up on the Lady

I couldn't have been more than six when I became enchanted with Lady Lovely Locks. I wasn't alone, of course - every little girl I knew adored her, along with her best friends and handmaidens, Maiden FairHair and CurlyCrown. Even the villain, Duchess Ravenwaves, had a certain charm.

And oh, how I coveted the toy line that went with the show! I had one friend who had a Lady doll, another who had the Duchess. My younger sister had Lady's faithful steed, Silky Mane. It felt like everyone was sporting pixietails or comb gnomes...

Except me.

Santa never did get the memo that I was the only one missing out on the Lady Lovely Locks craze. (He also misplaced the letter I sent asking for the Little Mermaid set that included Ariel's day dress, and Flounder, but that's another story.) But for some reason, I never quite gave up on wanting a Lady or Duchess doll.

Skip forward twenty or so years. I was having a bad day. One of those days where I probably shouldn't have been allowed around civilized society. But hey, a girl's gotta earn a living, so off to the office I went. Lunch time rolled around, and I decided to go for a drive to get some air. A gut feel told me to head for the local Value Village. I'd developed a habit of scouring the local thrift stores for retro My Little Ponies, and I'd picked that particular store clean a few days before. Still, the feeling persisted.

"But there won't be any ponies!" I whined. "They won't restock so quickly!"

The feeling refused to budge.

Grouching like a bear with a sore head, I went against 'common sense', and headed for the store. Twenty minutes later, I was about to walk out empty handed, when that dang gut feel resurfaced. This time it became more specific. Go look at the doll racks. I doubled back to the toy section, and began pawing through the mostly naked, all well-used dolls hanging in plastic baggies from the back wall display.

And there, towards the back, was a Lady Lovely Locks doll. Her hair was immaculate, her dress untouched by age or play wear. All she was missing was her shoes, and her pixietails.

I silently walked her to the cashier, paid for her, went and sat in my car, and cried. When I got home, I managed to find a collector on a My Little Pony forum who happened to be selling spare pixietails she had collected in her childhood, and yes, she just so happened to have a pair of shoes she was willing to sell, too.

This is my Lady today, perched on the bookcase in my writing office:

I know what you're thinking - Natasha, there'd better be a bloody good point to this story.

The point is that dreams don't always arrive on your schedule. Don't give up, just because your dream hasn't manifested yet. If it's too hard to keep holding out for that book deal, career opportunity, or special someone, it's okay to tuck that image away for a bit, and to focus on something else that will help you feel happier in the now. But don't give up hope. Never give up hope.

Wishing you all the best in your adventures and endeavours! And if you have a story of dreams showing up when you least expected them to, I'd love to hear about it!

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Natasha is the author of the Lost Souls Series - available at Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Audible.