Happily ever after, it's a promise we all cling to.

It gives us hope and courage.

It tells us things will get better.

At least that's what we'd like to believe.

And there are countless fairy tales that tell us that it's possible.

The original Beauty and the Beast legend is a story about a young woman whose family

has lost everything, only to be sent to live in a castle of a strange reclusive monster

as punishment for her father's theft.

Through the tale we learn that both Beauty and the Beast have challenges to overcome,

and together they find hope.

In the Native American folktale called the Bird Lover, we meet a widow at the end of

her proverbial rope.

She's lost her husband and is raising her two children through sickness and poverty,

wondering if hope is something she will ever feel again.

After meeting a strange talking bird that turns out to be a powerful spirit, the widow's

daughter Minda falls in love with him, and the pair eventually fly off into the sunset,

with Minda transforming into a bird rather than the bird becoming human.

But despite the differences, it's the hopeful ending we've all come to expect.

And while most of us have heard of James and the Giant Peach, few in Western culture

know about the older Japanese folktale of Momotaro, the Peach Boy.

In the story, Momotaro is discovered as an infant floating down a river inside a peach,

but as he grows up, he gather as a party of faithful friends, and together they kill

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