Once upon a time, in a land far away hidden in between Mountains, lived a mighty King. He was a young King, but a determined one. Never thought that his youth would be a time for enjoyment of life and discoveries and experiencing Love as so many idly do. Instead he thought he was destined to gain power and be much talked about. And so he ventured to conquer what he thought was rightly his. He led many battles and won them all. Or at least they say. And in our memories we only know of what the Emperor says so surely it must be true. And yes, Emperor, for he had conquered so much land that he was now titled as such.

Youth, however, was leaving him. And coming into a respectable age of adulthood, the Emperor thought that all this wealth, land and power could eventually be used for something beneficial for the rest of the world.

You see, he wasn’t a heartless Emperor, and believing as he did in ancient religions, it was time for him to think of giving back. And so he took a piece of land from his vast territory, made-up a name for it and ordered this place to be only populated by happy people so that their happiness would be seen as a model and spread into the rest of the world. It was a beautiful idea, it has to be said, and yet it is quite plain to see that the Emperor could not envision “giving back” any other way than how he had always led his life: the purpose always being to conquer more things.

And so he ventured to find the happiest people in his territory and send them to that country. The problem was, himself not knowing much about happiness, he wasn’t very good at it. Acknowledging that he needed help, and also not wanting to spend time on something so trivial, he asked the council of his priest and sent him to do his biding.

The priest, on the other hand, was very successful. He gathered a small group of people that slowly but surely grew and could nicely fit into the little country. But happiness is a state of life that, sometimes, may be altered. I assure you, it is quite possible for unhappy people to become happy. Sadly, so is its contrary. And so when someone had the misfortune of becoming too obviously unhappy, that person was kicked out of the country. It is quite fascinating though that them being kicked out often brought back their happiness. Who would’ve thought that, if they were happy outside of the country, something must have happened inside of it to make them unhappy? Not I surely.

And so the little country had quite the rotating population.

The Emperor, to remedy the constant change of these subjects, knighted three of his favourite happy people and ordered them to lead the others so that they would all remain happy forever. The three Knights, took their orders very seriously. But it soon dawned on them that themselves had to remain happy to be kept at their station. And so their primary goal was their Self-Satisfaction. And when that wasn’t possible, they at least had the decency of pretending it was the case in front of the Emperor. And avoiding eye contact with subjects that were too observant.

The other subjects, following in their leaders footsteps, became masters in the art of Feigning their mood. Or at least some of them were, the ones who wouldn’t master Deception just continued leaving the country.

In the end, this whole state of affairs had the Unforeseen and Unfathomable effect of making everybody quite miserable. The three Knights were trying to satisfy an insatiable man, forgetting about their Subjects who, themselves, were trying to make the now unhappy and Self-Involved Knights happy, and in the process of this impossible quest, the people made themselves unhappy. That is a lot of unhappiness going around if I may say so.

It has to be noted that the priest, who was still the Emperor’s right arm and through whom every decision in the kingdom had to go through first, tried his best to remedy the situation. He, indeed, did a very good job at making himself indispensable to the Emperor and keeping his high status. That was probably the extent of his achievements. But very important achievements they were.

And here our tale comes to an end.

I hope you find it very unsatisfactory. Because there will be no other end until each and everyone of these [Pretend] People Pleasers learn that they do not exist to impress the world. You exist to live Your life in a way that will make You happy.

What makes You happy?

The End.

XoXo – With deepest Sympathies and Forgiveness.

Once upon a time in a land far away, across the seven lands and across the seven seas live three little boys. One day the three little blonde heads went for a walk into the woods. It was a nice forest, in bloom and all, where they would gallop about and pick up things here and there.

But that day, something different would happen. They took a turn after the big pine tree and found themselves face to face with two Leopards. One yellow and one black. Now this was a very scary sight for the first boy, who immediately felt like there was nothing else to do but for all of them to run away. The second boy was perplexed. Scared, he felt he was unable to make a decision and looked towards the first boy. The third one on the other hand, felt as much fear as curiosity but the second feeling took over the first. And he was thinking of ways he could approach the two magnificent creatures without them feeling threatened or turning himself into their diner.

While that third boy was calmly thinking and remembering times he had seen someone use techniques to approach wild beasts, the first one let fear take over him and ran away. Yellow Leopard took notice and seeing how the second boy hesitated to run in that very same direction, he became his first victim. The third boy, watching the scene, could only hope that the first blonde head managed to save himself, but blamed him at the same time. Because in running away, he had cursed all of them to the same fate. Or so he thought.

The third boy was about to follow in their footsteps when he crossed the gaze of the black Leopard. And as he did so, he felt all the strength and the power within the glistening pupils of the animal. It was hard for him to tear himself away.

But he did. In running away though, he quickly came to a halt when he felt a sharp pain run through his left paw.

His paw?

Yes his paw. He lifted it up and removed the big thorn he had stepped on with his teeth.

And that’s when he noticed. He had turned himself into a Leopard as well. And a little thorn in his paw wasn’t going to stop him. As he felt how unlimited his resources were and the renewal of his power, he took the decision to face his fear head on and turned back to look at the other Panther.

“Game on.”

The End.

Xoxo – From the dreamtime with Love.

Once upon a time, in a plentiful land far away lived a herd of horses. Some of them where brown, some of them were black and some of them were grey. Sometimes they splashed about in rivers, sometimes they raced, and sometimes they played together. Only one of them did not. Only one was white. And because he was such, because he was the only one, White Horse was always warned to take care of his coat. He did not splash about, he did not roll over in the dust and he took care of racing in the mud. He did not race at all if he could help it to be honest. He did not mind though because he thought he was so lucky to be so bright, to be so white, his fellow horses envied him. He saw some of them, like the Grey Horse, trying to turn their coat as white as his by using an array of tricks. But they could never manage. And so White Horse lived curating his special coat. Being careful in everything he did became part of him. And showing off his bright colour became part of who he was. He never even thought of the possibility that he might not be a careful horse or a show off. But the look of envy or admiration of others never made him doubt a second. Time went by and White Horse meet new studs and mares, and eventually became part of a new herd. The horses of that herd had exactly the same expectations of White Horse, or so he thought. For him to be bright and admirable. And yet. This didn’t feel enough anymore for White Horse. Something was eating at him, and he felt himself to become more and more edgy. Worse, he felt easily irritable and tempestuous. I don’t think he understood that at the time he was trying to protect something that he thought was nature’s gift but in truth were other’s expectations and his interpretations of them. And so an internal battle was taking place, though he did not know what each side was fighting for. One day that he was weary and not a thing in sight was bringing him happiness, the Wind had a bright idea on how to wake White Horse’s courage up. She blew strong and whispered in his ears. “Let’s have an experiment shall we?” said she. The horse, who was definitely ready for change, followed the wind’s indication. As soon as he heard her words, it was as if he could not live one moment longer without trying this experiment out, and so he sought the reddest, stainiest earth possible. And when he found it, he, simply, rolled in it. He tossed and turned, making sure he was entirely stained and his white coat completely ruined, and the fun it procured him was unimaginable.

Something he thought he could never do before, all of a sudden became something he wanted to repeat.When he came back to his herd, some were shocked. The gasps where numerous. Some said he wasted nature’s gift to him, some said it was MUCH better now than it used to be. All Red Horse did was smile in return, not caring at all anymore about other’s expectations, or more accurately, his interpretations of them. And then the most shocking reaction, was the one of a new fellow horse, who… Hadn’t noticed the change. And right there and then, Red Horse valued his friendship so much more. Because he understoodthat superficial appearances had no effect on him, and thus they became closer.

And so Red horse, was beginning to comprehend what was truly his personality and what he had taken for his own when it wasn’t. And his newly re-defined personality, on top of drawing in other good-natured horses, brought out sensibilities in others that used to act superficial. The wind, observing the changes slowly taking place smiled and whispered once more to Red Horse: “See the differences? See what a small change can turnover very big things?” And Red horse thought: “The flapping wings of a butterfly can create a tornado.” And so the wind continued to blow.

XoXo – From the magical breeze with Love.

It is common knowledge that without an intense, intricate or somehow dramatic personal life, a storyteller is rendered quite obsolete. Creation strikes only when there is a story to tell and so a storyteller should always have an exciting and surprising life to draw inspiration from.

Such is both the good fortune and the curse of the storyteller. Now there is a particular storyteller who only strove to be fulfilled. To be happy was the purpose of everything he ever undertook. And so he waited for opportunities to present themselves to him and prove himself the best person he could ever be in this instance. And then he told his stories. His failures, or more accurately the mistakes he made so he could learn from them, his victories and everything in between. The stories took many forms, sometimes songs, sometimes drawings, sometimes a book or a short story, he even tried his hand at photography and filming when he felt it right.

And in storytelling, his learnings came to be clearer and he became better and better. He could come back to them whenever he felt he had forgotten. Or just leave them be when he felt he didn’t need them anymore. Such was the purpose of his work.

Not a week passed without him producing a word or a picture of some sort. For his personal knowledge or to be shown to the world, whichever he felt was best fitted.

Yet it has been months and this storyteller has been at loss of words. Although life has been plentiful, his pen remained dry. Everytime he thought of picking it up, he acknowledged his heart, and in believing there was nothing to say, he left the pen untouched.

But just like his trusted tool, the storyteller became lonely. And so he read stories of others to keep his faith in this most favorite art.

And in reading others he realized his reason for not having anything to say anymore. He had gone weary of his usual activities. The ones that used to bring inspiration, mistakes, fun, disappointment and learning had nothing left to teach him or brighten him it seemed. So what must be done in order to bring new ideas into his life?

It didn’t really dawn on him that if he had become bored of the many opportunities that came to him, or at least if he felt they were insufficient for his happiness and creativity, it might be because he would have something to change himself. But not knowing that, he waited. As was his habit because things always conveniently fell upon him for a reason or another.

One of his particular friends called it “the calm before the storm.”

But the storyteller’s patience was growing thin and the calm was way too calm for his liking. The stories that came to his mind were all the same and he was too jaded in just thinking them to even put them to paper.

His body though, had a way of expressing itself which he had grown accustomed to listen to. And strangely, it felt like he could not have one more sip, or one more bite of some sweet greasy treat without provoking intense disgust from the pit of his stomach. And so he thought. What if he got rid of everything he resorted to when he was bored. His cures had always been parties, good food, drinks, new people (read here women). Not necessarily in that order. But maybe instead of finding new things to play with and divert himself with, he could let go of those habits and see what came to him instead.

He scarcely had a choice, thought he, for his body truly gave him a miserable time even just at the thought of marinated beef or fresh beer. And in listening he felt it not impossible to change so imbedded habits. It didn’t even feel unpleasant.

And in doing so the inspiration came flowing back. And instead of new, fleeting acquaintances, he cherished deeper relations that gave him more to write and talk about than anything else. And thus he found that the word boring was not linked to being sober, calm, healthy or straight, but that boredom came from stagnation, from the sameness of living, from unchanged habits and traits of character. And if the same excitements had been part of his daily routine, then they were no more exciting. And so he cast them away. Until they should be exciting again.

Xoxo – From the depth of a good book with Love.

One day that they were sailing the calm seas, a ship was spotted from the crow’s nest. (Click here to know where they were sailing from) “Ahoy! A black flag… A Jolly Roger I know not.” Screamed down the first mate. And as they were getting closer: “It’s making its way towards us!” Hope wondered what kind of strange technique that was. Visibility was perfect, nowhere to hide and nowhere to run if the battle took a wrong turn, and more importantly the wind was on their side.

As her crew readied the canons, she saw something strange. A white flag. They were waving a white flag. “What, no battle?” said Captain Hope in disbelief. “What is this??” But once again she turned her head to see that the ship wasn’t stopping, it was still steadily making its way to her.

Canons were loaded, the crew waiting for Hope to make a sign, but when the captain and crew of the other vessel came into view, she slowly lowered her hand. The ship wasn’t about to attack, it was asking for help. The men were starving and had barely enough strength to manoeuver the ship. And the Captain invoked the right of Parlay. Permission was granted. When he came aboard Hope’s ship he was taken aback to be faced with a woman. “I suppose neither of us was expecting this.” Joked the young Captain Swann. But behind the smile, he looked indeed in poor condition. Hope saw that the man wasn’t evil spirited, but that he took many wrong turns to be in such a dreadful state. Still, she decided to help out and offer what she could. Once the men fed and hydrated, both ships stood still for a whole day and a full night. I suppose that when both defences are down, when there is nothing to loose, it’s easier to find and ally than an enemy. But before sunrise, one of the boats took off, as silently as a summer breeze.

Captain Hope woke up only to find her vessel in shambles. Swann’s men had silently raided her ship, plundered her treasures and made sure she wasn’t manoeuvrable.

Hope could not believe it. The deception stung bitterly but was quickly overcome by a more pressing matter, she and her crew were stuck and well on their way to starve to death. Even the Parrots had abandoned the ship.

They all tried to fix the ship as best as they could. They were working hard and long, thinking of creative ways to salvage what was left of her. Yet days went by and still she could not be moved. Lack of food, lack of water, Hope was starting to go mad. And the same ideas churning in her head:

How could men be so callous? How could they not know how to behave better? What wretched soul could do such a thing? HOW DARE THEY?

Pride prickled, trust ripped apart, and the poisonous concoction of disappointment and anger. She decided to let her emotions go wild in her brain, but was careful never to be bitter in front of the crew. And so she spoke as little as possible, offering only smiles and jokes and what she thought was well-placed insights on others. She knew she missed the mark, but it seemed crucial not to attract attention on herself, she would not be able to lie if she was asked a direct question, and so diverging was her best option she thought.

And all along in her head she thought: “What must they be thinking of me. They must think I am so soft-hearted, weak, that I do not know any better. They will over-turn me at the first chance they have. They must never know.”

Fevers were spiking, hot sweats that put her into trances… At one point, Hope’s body gave up trying to keep up with her and so she instantly fell into a deep slumber that seemed to last forever. And in her deep sleep Hope had two dreams. Well they weren’t exactly dreams, which was what was so peculiar about them. She was neither standing nor sitting, neither somewhere or nowhere, neither alone or surrounded. All she could feel was this: “Everything is going to be ok.” And then a swish of long luscious hair, and then again she was back into that place that was not a place. “EVERYTHING IS OK.” Echoed every fiber of her body.

In waking up, shaken by that deep emotion, she directly knew this to be true.

“Are you alright Captain, what happened?!” cried the alarmed first mate.

“It’s alright, We are all going to be alright.” And then she spoke unto her crew:

“I found out that… It’s ok not to be ok sometimes. I don’t have to pretend that I am fine all the time, I don’t have to hide behind jokes as a form of protection, I don’t have to smile if I am hurt.

We do not live to impress the world. And if we bring events in our lives, as unpleasant as they may be, it’s because we need them to grow.

But I cannot grow if I do no acknowledge them. And so, I will tell you: I am not ok right now. I am confused, unsure of what’s ahead, unsure of what that event has done to me, to us. Maybe I was in no position to give help and thus we are now helpless ourselves. Or maybe I was meant to give it all away so we can start from scratch. As hard and as maddening as it may be, maybe I needed to get rid of the old, anchored parts.

And so Gentlemen I will ask you, throw away the anchor. Get rid of the canons. All they are is keeping us down. But who says we should stay down?! Not I! Aye, let’s find a new use for this ship, sailing the seas, we have done already, now look up, look up into the sky and let’s fly.”

And in saying this, she already felt better. Because in acknowledging, she found the first steps of healing.

And in sharing her truth with the world, she felt lighter.

And as if she had heard her, her ship became lighter as well. Once all defence mechanisms had been cast into the Ocean, the hull didn’t believe she was only meant to float on water anymore, and thus lifter herself up in the air.

That was the moment Red Parrot decided to reappear into their sight. She landed on Hope’s hand and wagged its long tail, then took off again following the trail of the Green Parrot. Hope could not see beyond the clouds, but she knew he was there too, waiting for his mate.

“Where do we go from here?” Asked the first mate.

“Up. Answered Captain Hope. Up is the only way from here.” Said she feeling the winds of change blowing.

The End.

XoXo – From the Clouds with Love.

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Hope. She was named as such because it was a belief in Pirate’s tradition that women brought bad luck on board. But her father thought, if his daughter was Hope itself, she would counter the superstition and bring good fortune to the ship and crew. And so Hope was raised in the midst of brutal men, gold and lust thirsty.

Every time the ship made port, the men would hurry on land to squander their booty on grog and women. Now Hope’s father, the Captain, wasn’t one of those men. And she often observed him counting his pieces of eight and putting them away for safe-keeping. As for the women she encountered while on land, all of them without exception would tell her to be careful of men. “Big, nasty and vile creatures darlin’. All they want from you is one thing, and once you give it to them… Well… Ye might as well be walkin’ the plank.”

But none of these women did walk the plank… So there must be some hope in men little Hope thought. Not that she cared much about men though.

Little Hope had bigger thoughts occupying her brain, she wanted to sail the seas, just like her father, and her grandfather before her. She wanted to command a ship and see many many horizons.

And so little Hope grew up to be a fearless sailor. Everyone who met her called her Lucky, but she knew no luck was part of it. Determination, or lack thereof, guided her path.

When the time came to be right, her captain of a father gave her control of one of the vessels in his fleet. Young Hope was ecstatic. Thought it wasn’t full freedom yet, it was the first step towards it.

And so she learned to navigate the smaller ship, and more importantly, deal with her crew. There she was alone in this task, and not well versed in dealing with men’s egos and hidden feelings. And so she thought that no weakness should be shown. No mercy and no compassion would transpire in her words or on her face, even if her heart was bleeding. And thus she was dubbed Cold Hope from her crew. Not to her face of course, they were too scared, but in secret, when they thought she wouldn’t hear.

But of course, the ship was small and the wind carried the words to her ears. Gossip. She knew well of the concept, she knew she was often the subject of it of course, but she didn’t understand why. Wasn’t this the basis of human interaction: whomever shows feelings is the weakest? And why would she want to be considered weak? No chance in hell.

Under that cold cold shell though was a very big, very red, and very much beating heart. And even though her eyes would often reveal her passion and compassion, her words and actions would not. Ever.

And thus with such a conflicted character, Hope continued to grow into a fearsome leader.

One day that the fleet came ashore, she wandered through the bird market. And there she saw two Parrots in one cage. One was big, bright red and immediately caught her eye, what a magnificent creature she thought. The other paled in comparison, much smaller and in a vague green, perhaps a bit of blue there, with missing feathers from the neck. And yet she couldn’t stop staring at the two and how they were behaving towards each other. “Aye, they are the bestest of friends these two.” Said the merchant. “Really? Asked Hope, seems to me that the red one would be better off without the other.”

“Doubtful milady, although the red one gives me such a hard time and always tries to escape the cage, eventually she always comes back to her mate. Blasted creature though, I can’t sell ‘em! No one wants the shabby green but if I separate the two, they’ll surely die.”

“Is that so?” wondered Hope, “Alright, I’ll take them both.” And as she said so, she opened the cage to see the bright red Parrot flying away to the next cage and sliding herself into a huge Cockatoo’s cage. Hope instantly grew scared that the red Parrot would find herself fighting the Cockatoo. The merchant, observing the young lady said: “Not to fret milady, that Parrot’s as friendly as it gets. She’d make a wolf carry her on his back if she ever met one.” And indeed it seemed that the Cockatoo did not mind the intruder in her cage, didn’t even flap a wing as she was eating her food. “How funny. How does she do it?”

“Aye, I’ve got my suspicions milady, they say Parrots know when to speak and when to stay silent, and remind you to stay clear of gossip.” Said the merchant with twinkling eyes.

Hope didn’t understand what he meant, still she slid her hand in the cage to take the Parrot with her, which the red creature did diligently while the cockatoo was biting Hope’s fingers. “Well clearly he doesn’t like me as much!”

The merchant laughed: “Listen to the lovebirds milady, they’ve much to teach.”

Hope still didn’t understand what he meant. But still she felt happy taking the two creatures to their new home.

When the men saw their captain coming back, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Was she really able to care for such insignificant creatures? And so by bringing back the two animals, Hope hadn’t realized that she was actually showing a piece of her heart.

She cared very much for the two little things, and so did all the crew. And Hope saw that her men grew incredibly fond of the birds, claiming strong emotional attachment to them, talking about feelings the way she’d never heard a man talk before. And it seems that she too was showing her true colors when in company of the birds. And so her men saw her in a different light.

Seeing everyone’s action changing, Hope learned that only when showing a bit of emotion, she would get emotions back from the people surrounding her. And so she practised and practised, giving a bit of this, or a bit of that and seeing how the pirates would react. And she learned that men where as clueless as her when it came to emotional communication.

Why was it seen as a weakness in their world?

Hope didn’t know. But she didn’t really have time to think of it, her father had given her a bigger ship, more men older and younger, new techniques to learn, to manoeuver the vessel and the crew…

Manipulation she had become good at though. Not really thinking about it, but maybe just by observing the two birds interacting, she had learned the words and intonations to use for this or that purpose. It was nice to make people want to help you rather than shout orders at them while trying to inspire fear.

And thus Hope grew to be at peace with fear.

To be continued…

And then one day Wasp was observing the undergrowth of all things (find out why she was doing this in Part I here). She was having a hard time as she was not used to so little light. But still there was light, and so she saw joy in the smallest sparkle reflecting on tiny hailstones. But something was moving under the dead leaves. And Wasp saw two long antennas sticking out and reaching for the wee bits of light.

And that is when she met Cockroach. “Ew” thought the Wasp as she saw him emerging. But as Cockroach paid no attention to the bright colored Wasp and scurried away past her, she thought it odd and decided to follow him.

“What are you running away from?” asked the inquisitive Wasp.

“You.” Answered the crawling bug.

“What? But I haven’t done anything to you, I don’t even know you!” replied the outraged Wasp.

“Ah yes, yes, but I know you. You are all charming and fluttering and bright, but at the first sign of fear: Bzzz! You sting.”

“Is that so? Well tell me how to adapt to any situation and survive like you, and I might not be afraid and sting anymore.”

“Adapting and surviving I know very well indeed, and that is exactly what I am doing right now, I’m running away from the danger that you are! But although I can see you are trying, you can hardly run away from yourself now can you Wasp?”

And just like that Wasp was left to ponder. Like a pondering thing. With wings. And a sting.

Hmmm.

And that is when she heard a whistle. It was a peaceful melody that echoed through the leaves and bounced off the flowers, it was Spider weaving her web of fate. Wasp carefully flew to Spider and asked her what she was singing about. And Spider answered hanging upside down from a single almost invisible thread: “It’s a message for the ones who fail to see the expansiveness of the eternal plan. You see, I wove and still weave the dream of the world, and yet I am but a Spider. Every living being should remember that they are infinite and will continue to weave the patterns of life and living throughout time.”

And Wasp saw the light of the Sun being caught in the morning dew of Spider’s web and how pretty it was. Just like the light reflecting off Butterfly’s multiple colors. And just like the little light Cockroach saved to be able to see anywhere he went.

And then Wasp noticed that she wasn’t so lonely anymore. And that light bounced off her Yellow frame just like every other insects and yet in its own special way. And it was only because all of them existed that the Sun was able to carry its light everywhere and anywhere. And so it wasn’t because everyone was different from her that they couldn’t be her family. But quite the contrary, it takes all shapes and sizes to create a beautiful puzzle.

And so she said to the Sun: “Ok you win. I don’t want to be like you anymore. I don’t want to be lonely. But how do I do this?”

And the Sun replied: “You don’t do anything. Like attracts like. Just be who you are, calm and clear and bright. Automatically, as you shine who you are, asking yourself every minute is this what I really want to do, doing it only when you answer yes, automatically that turns away those who have nothing to learn from who you are, and attracts those who do, and from whom you have to learn, as well.”

And with those words, Wasp happily buzzed to her new found friends, who had just taught her so much in so little time.

The End.

XoXo – From Sunny Praha with Love