Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

“This power was born within you, Amber. It is a gift given to you that you can give back to the world. To keep such power hidden just because you feel scared or uncertain would rob the world of the beauty of that gift. You have no idea what good you could do for our kingdom and the realms if you don’t learn to use it.”

Each of my books in my Solstice Chronicles series is based on a different fairytale or myth. For my third book, Beauty Reborn:A Summer Solstice Chronicle, it is based primarily on the mythological Phoenix Bird, but I also incorporated elements of the fairytales Rapunzel and Aladdin into my third book. If you’re unfamiliar with the fairytale of Rapunzel (one of my favorites), the story goes that a young girl was hidden away in a tower for most of her life by a woman who was not her mother. Rapunzel is known most for her extremely long hair. Rapunzel often sang her days away with little else to do in her tower and had a beautiful voice that drew a prince wandering the woods to her isolated tower. Enchanted by her voice and beauty, the prince asks her the famed question to let down her hair. He climbs up her braided hair and talks with Rapunzel and falls in love with her. The prince returned time and again to visit the sweet maiden and smuggles her supplies to begin to put a ladder together so she can escape her tower and they can live happily ever after. The witch that has held Rapunzel captive all these years finds out the prince has been visiting Rapunzel, and cuts Rapunzel’s hair, sending her to wander the wilderness for the rest of her life. The prince is blinded by thorns at the base of Rapunzel’s tower when he finds out she’s no longer there. The prince wanders through the wilderness for years until he hears Rapunzel’s ethereal voice again. When they are reunited, Rapunzel weeps over her prince and her tears heal his eyes, restoring his sight.

When you read Beauty Reborn, you will see a lot of similar elements in Amber’s story. Her fiery red hair that catches Aiden’s attention when he first sees her in the window of her tower in the Summer palace that is built like a fortress ends up growing to unusual lengths after she comes in contact with a mystical Phoenix Gem. There are also other similarities incorporated into this Summer Solstice tale with blinded eyes being healed by a magical tear.

Princess Amber is the princess of the Summer realm and is being pledged to marry the heir to the Fall realm in an arranged marriage, set up by her father and the false ruler of the Fall realm as a way to unite their realms and join defenses in case the Winter and Spring realms ever decide to attack and try to take over after they are united in a similar union the eve after the Summer Solstice. Even though the king of the Summer realm is swayed by his advisor to initiate the arranged union between his daughter and the prince from the Fall realm, King Azar is worried that the other kingdoms will find out why his daughter has been kept hidden away in a tower for most of her life. You find out early on in the book that a devastating fire took the life of Amber’s mother and Amber’s sight when she was younger. Her father has kept her hidden away in the tower as a way to protect her from getting hurt since she can no longer see. By the time Aiden, the half-blood prince from the Fall realm, discovers Amber’s true identity, she has become so comfortable with living in her tower that she’s never felt a need to leave it. Another fire breaks out soon after Aiden and his brother Erick arrive in the Summer realm, and forces Amber to leave her tower.

As I started writing this story a few years ago, I didn’t have an exact story I wanted to tell. My first two books, Beauty Restored and Beauty Redeemed, the main characters carried a lot of my personal story–things I’ve struggled with most of my life, hardships I’ve faced, difficult trials. I had a specific message I wanted to share in those stories and characters, but this third book wasn’t as personal at the start. As I wrote Beauty Reborn, some more specific storylines started coming to the surface. One thing I wanted to emphasize was the trials by fire we face in life and how Christ can bring beauty from even the most devastating circumstances in our lives and how He is always in the fire with us.(Check out my other article about Standing in the Fire). Another storyline that came to the surface in Beauty Reborn was the idea of remaining hidden away in our towers of fear.

Amber discovers partway through the book that she has had a very special gift inside of her, but she is terrified to explore it or use it. She even wishes many times throughout the story that she could be back in her tower–Safe. Protected. Nothing expected of her. No chance of getting hurt. No chance of hurting others.

How many of us live our lives like that?

I spent most of my life hiding away from the world. I always loved performing and acting out stories in my head, but I never did it in front of people. I’ve always loved singing, and though I sometimes performed in front of my family or did the occasional forced recital performance for piano lessons or nerve-wracking special music for church, I rarely let myself be fully seen. Even my emotions and feelings were often kept hidden away. I didn’t want to be a bother to people, so I never opened up to people or wanted to foist my problems on others. Even now, it takes a while to open up to people. I’ve found very few places in my life where I felt comfortable enough to be who I was created to be. Those places have ironically always been in the performing arts. Being in shows in high school, my music teacher was the most amazing Christian man who provided an outlet for us kids to perform and share the Gospel through whatever show we did, and though I viewed myself as a shy, introverted, socially awkward teen that didn’t fit in, the musical was the one place I could be free and express myself on stage and be a part of something where I felt comfortable. I still didn’t open up hardly at all in school and even at my first college, I didn’t open up much to people. My second college was another place I found solace and friendship and was the first time I really felt I could be the me God created me to be. The caterpillar had busted out of the cocoon and had become a beautiful butterfly full of joy and close friendships and a world of performing and doing what I loved on a regular basis. Sadly, the butterfly became shut in and closed off and hidden away again after that wonderful time in college. Different things in my life sent me back to my tower and it was hard interacting with people and attending social events. I lost my spirit and freedom and beauty all over again. Many days, all I wanted to do was stay in that tower I had erected for myself and not deal with the world around me, and I usually did.

I have been given a beautiful gift of singing from God, and singing has always been my one thing that I could always do. I sang in the shower, sang in the car on my long drives between IA/MO and Denver, sang around the house, hummed at work. People always loved my voice, even when it wasn’t always the most polished or on tune. My mom always pushed and encouraged me to sing in front of people, but I always passed it off and never wanted to. Unless I was performing in a show, I didn’t normally just get up in front of people and start singing. The last couple years, I was able to start singing with the worship team at the church we’ve been attending, which has been amazing because many churches I’ve attended over the years have told me that my voice is “too pretty” for the modern worship style in churches today, so I haven’t been able to serve and use my gift in churches for a long time. Our worship leader started having me lead some songs, which I had never done before, but it pushed me to use my gift more and I started becoming a lot more confident and comfortable being on stage and singing. I’ve also been a part of a show choir the last several months which has also been incredible and a place where I feel like home, and free and beginning to fly again.

I share all of this to say that it can be very easy to live our lives in a tower and not see the need to leave the tower. It’s very easy to become comfortable in our lives and not make the effort or see the need to leave our towers. They can be our safe place or just familiar, so we don’t even desire to leave them. But God didn’t create and craft each and every individual person on this planet to just live in a tower all our lives. He created each person with special gifts (we usually have more than one) that make each person unique and beautiful in that gift. Whether your gift is singing or hospitality or teaching or making meals for others or creating art or a mind for finance or building buildings, you have a gift that is special and unique to you. Just as Amber is told that her gift is something special that she would be depriving her realm of, we all have gifts that if we aren’t using them, we are depriving the world of what makes us special and unique. You never know who will need your gifts. How a song could touch someone. What difference a meal or coffee date could mean to someone. How someone’s life could be altered by a moving piece of art. A house that provides a roof and home to someone.

We all need to take a step out of our towers. God has called us to be more than just residents in our towers of comfort and familiarity. Don’t let the fears of the outside world or the fears of the people that have put you down and convinced you that you aren’t special or good enough to leave the tower keep you from leaving. You were not made with a spirit of fear. You were meant to be courageous and beautiful and unique. Only you can shine light into the world with the unique gifts you have been given. Let the world see you. They might just get a glimpse of God here on earth.