Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time there was a prince and a princess. They were not born of the same family but in many ways they could have been. The princess loved the prince with all her heart and soul. So much so that she grieved for his absence. The prince loved the princess very much too – but he was a man – and he couldn’t understand how he could love the princess as much as he loved himself. That wasn’t what he expected of love, so he began to think, to think of her as being too close to really love as a man should love his princess. So she became his sister and he spent time with her and cared for her but he was afraid to truly love as he knew a prince was meant to love a princess.


One day his princess was crying in her grief and the prince ran out of his castle to the top of a hill.  He looked up at the sky and opened his arms to the heavens.  Loneliness was in his voice as he shouted in frustration at the stars. At once his fairy godmother tapped him on the shoulder.


“Don’t despair my prince – life is as you want it to be. When you view the princess as part of you then you must love yourself before you can accept the love you have for her. But you are worthy of your own love too my fine prince. See how your kingdom loves you. You are perfect and beautiful in every way. When you can see it then the princess will never need to grieve again and neither will you.”


With that thought trailing in the air behind her the fairy godmother disappeared into the dark night and the prince found himself alone again on the dark hill.  The loneliness suddenly wrapped him in its heavy arms and he shivered. Thoughts of the princess flashed into his mind and he felt warm again and safe. She really wasn’t part of him after all, he decided. She wouldn’t be lonely – not like he was lonely. She would only grieve for a lifetime, silently, but he would be the one to cry.


He stood there in the night and thought of how each of them would be less without the other and he began to feel warm and safe. He smiled, laughing because he had never seen it before. They were truly special people but more different then he had ever realized. They could never be the same because she was female and he was male. He wasn’t making love to himself but to her when he expressed that love. Then he could truly love himself for knowing the difference. And he could truly love her because now it was all right.


The prince turned and ran down the hill slipping and sliding in the wet grass. He couldn’t wait to find his princess and say for the very first time, with all his heart and soul –


I LOVE YOU.