Once in a blue moon

Once in a blue moon you might get the opportunity to encounter with a princess. She lives in beautiful old hoses, in caves by the sea, in old trees, in the fire. She is always present but she can only speak to those who know how to listen. Over the years she’s encountered fewer and fewer people to speak to.

I got the opportunity to meet a princess in one of these places. It was in a beautifully crafted apartment with ceilings so high you could almost discern the stars. An apartment that had once housed her. At first she didn’t remember that she was a princess, but her soul kept whispering the truth in hear ears at night.

Her long wavy hair was blond and thick and she viewed herself as a citizen of the world even though she had never travelled. She appeared tall and her aura silently impressed the people around her. She rarely interacted with them. Or rather, they rarely interacted with her. She felt that she belonged to the forest and the mountains as much as she belonged to mankind. She was a princess of the elements but she had yet to remember.

She lived with her parents. Parents that were never present, even if they were at home. Her dad travelled the world and her mum pretended to like that. Her mum had always dreamt of having a small farm with sheep close to the forest but her dad told her it was impossible and thus that became the truth. She wandered the apartment thinking about how something so alive could feel so dead. How the halls of such beauty could contain such an absolute nothingness. The house was numb, and so was she.

One day she decided to leave for the forest. She felt she had done her part and wanted to know what it was like to live with nature. She wanted to blow like the wind, flow like the water, burn like the fire and be grounded like the earth. She especially felt a connection to the earth – to the original mother. And so she went.

She ended up becoming a shepherd. Leading the sheep through good times and bad. Through storms and thunder and through mornings so beautiful they almost stopped her heart. If I could die like this, she thought, I would die happy.

One day, after many years, her dad found her. He had sent his men to search for her and just as she was lighting up the fire for the night they caught up with her. Instead of panicking she calmly packed her things and followed them. She was calm since her quest made her realize that as long as you stay true to yourself you can never be imprisoned by others. The pain lies in the struggle. Since she was already the fire and the sun, the stars and the moon, the oceans and the animals, she was already free.

Imprisoned are only those who keep others in cages, she thought. Those who, out of fear, tries to cut out the innate freedom that exists in all living things. Those who think they can own another beeing be it a plant, a rock, or a human. Imprisoned are only those who try to govern the current of life.

She calmly walked into her dads office. He was raging with anger, ranging with worry and couldn’t stop yelling. She calmly listened understanding that this was not about her. In the end she asked him: Why don’t you set mum, and yourself, free?

The old man burst into tears. Tears slowly streaming down his face until they became a river of their own. A river carrying his life force back to him. He calmly answered: only your mum can free herself and yesterday she did. Now she is free to roam the fields, climb the trees and blow like the wind. Now she is free to become what, and who, she really is. And so am I. As the conversation came to and end a dove landed on the balcony parapet. They both looked at it and smiled.