It was wintertime and our very own Princess had gone to visit her father’s home. The king’s palace seemed bigger and brighter than ever. Himself looked brighter and happier every time she went to pay him a visit.

One day that her father was busy dealing with paperwork and the kingdom’s economy, she was looking through the humongous windows of the castle. The view was gorgeous. The entire forest ahead was covered in snow, from the glistening treetops to the white-coated clearing leading to the forest. What a beautiful sight she thought.

But wait who’s this up ahead?

She saw a small figure in the distance, just coming out from behind the trees, a girl with fair skin and fair hair. She was not alone. By her side stood two creatures, one very distinctive with a neck almost overlooking the treetops and fur as colourful as the snow was white, the other, the princess could not quite make-out, it was too small over there in the distance.

And in seeing her, something stirred up inside the Princess. This girl, she felt, was an enemy. An enemy to whom? She did not know, but there was something sad, angering and maybe misunderstood about her. And it seemed she wasn’t the only one thinking it.
On the other side of the clearing, approached a group of boys and girls. All had fair hair and fair skin, just like the previous girl, but they did not seem to get along at all. She saw one of the boys taking a weapon, but before the Princess could cry out a warning, Giraffe was hit in the heart and killed instantly. And then something even more shocking happened. It was as if the girl had had this magical bond with the creature, and she too, fell to the ground. As if she had turned to stone, her body dropped in the snow, lifeless. The princess could see the snowflakes falling on the girl’s face and not melting. And she could see the girls’ eyes turning bloodshot. All of a sudden, she wasn’t behind the comfort of the castle’s windows anymore, she was right there, standing next to the lifeless body.

And she saw she wasn’t the only one who had come to take a closer look. One of the faired haired boys, stood out from the crowd and kneelt besides the ice statue the girl had turned into. And with a sound of disapproval and astonishment from the crowd, he lifted her up and carried her over his shoulder. It seemed he could sense the crowd’s negative reaction, maybe he was afraid the crowd would act even more violently, or maybe he thought this had already gone too far, and so he ran away from them, taking the girl with him.

He ran for what seemed to be a long time, through the forest, making sure he was loosing the angry mob before finding the place he came to look for.

He found the entrance of the cave and opened it by saying secret words. There were words of love, words of kindness but also words of hate. Hate for one dark haired boy in particular. And the Princess thought, “Why does he hate him so much? Who is he and What had happened?” But then she realized… How was she here, inside the secret cave with them in the first place? She looked around and it seemed, it wasn’t ‘Them’, it was just her and the boy. And she was standing, there, by his side. Not a lifeless body with bloodshot eyes, not an observer either, it was her along. And she looked around, feeling so thankful and warm and bright inside this enchanted place, she smiled to the boy next to her. She had so many questions to ask, but as he took her hand to lead her inside what seemed to be an amazing enchanted castle, she knew what her first question would be:

“Who is this happy boy with curly blond hair and rosy baby cheeks on the painting?”

XoXo – From Winter Wonderland Dreamtime with Love.

 

Next: chapter 5. The Princess is the Frog. Spring has Sprung.

It seemed that our very own Princess had mastered all the gifts and learnings she had received from the animal and enchanted realm (Go back to The Princess is the Frog. Evolution. to find out what had happened before). She had improved herself in every way, acting only when she believed it was right for her. And only the way she wanted to. And thus she grew a light so bright incredible things started to appear in her life. Things, and people were attracted to it. And thus new and old Princes crossed her path.

And yet the pattern had changed. When she looked upon them, instead of protecting herself by seeing only the bad in them, she saw only the good. And she discovered of how easy it was to focus only on the beauty and the attractive part of someone’s personality. She liked it very much, and in return everyone would tell her of her attractive qualities. Qualities she didn’t even know she ever possessed.

And maybe, hopefully, people liked hearing her tell them of their attractive qualities. Maybe they didn’t know they possessed them either.

And yet. No matter the multitude of beautiful souls and enchanting encounters, fate had it that she sometimes found herself in the company of her last Prince Charming. And no matter how happy she truly was to see him, her tongue would sharpen and her words turned her into the poisonous Frog she tried so hard to fight.

And it seemed, even if he was at first glance the bright and Charming Prince he was when she first met him, at second glance he too would look quite… Green.

Was it because her words and acts where harsh? Or had he been the first one to trigger the animosity?

Who had behaved worse in the first place?

The Princess didn’t know.

But it seemed to her, he was the gentleman. And so he should do the gentleman thing and start behaving like a true Prince again. Why didn’t he?

Then again, why wasn’t she behaving like a gracious Princess either?

And so our Frog Princess wished there was a Princess’ manual. Like a sort of handbook that could tell her how to deal with every fairy-tale gone wrong situation she could ever be faced with.

If only it were that simple…

And so the frog princess often pondered. Like a pondering thing in a pond.

Maybe she should be the one writing the manual. And what would she write about since she didn’t have the answers?

I suppose she did have the answer to a couple of things. Like those other Princes crossing her path. How easy it was to see the beauty of them but not feel for them and knowing instantly she never will. That was a new distinction she had previously never made. Suitors does not mean suited.

Unfortunately the new suitors didn’t seem to make that distinction. And so she had mastered the way of tiptoeing around them so as to not hurt their male egos. Often at the cost of her own ego it has to be said. But oh well, as often, she found that she could take bruising much better than men could.

That was one thing she could write in a Princess’ manual she thought. But I suppose that clearly wasn’t enough or even nearly satisfying.

Quite the contrary, the hole in her ribcage was back. She didn’t know why or even how. But it was pressing. As if an urgent matter she needed to take care of right now.

But what?

If it was about the last Prince Charming, there was nothing she could do truly. Nothing seemed to change every time they met, no matter how hard she wished it so. Nothing was making her forget and yet nothing was making her hate him either, and so she stayed in this status quo phase of nothingness.

If only…

If only she had the guts to say… Something. Anything… Maybe something that would start with I’m sorry and end with Thank you. And in between maybe a bit of: I heard you went back to another Princess, I wish you all the happiness in the world. You deserve it. I think. No, I’m sure. I’m sure. I want. I hope. I don’t know. I know nothing. You tell me.

But it’s hard to talk to someone’s back.

So for now, nothing.

And yet no matter what, something echoed very strongly inside of her: “EVERYTHING IS OK. You are a perfect expression of perfect love. Here. Now.”

Maybe that is a good way to start a manual.

XoXo – From Praha with perfect expression of perfect love.

 

Next: chapter 4. The Princess is the Frog. A Winter Wonderland Tale.

The Prince Charming could not believe how lucky he was to be with the Princess. And she could not believe how lucky she was to have found a Prince who loved her ever so. Everyday the Prince would tell her how much he loved her and talk about their life together. And everyday she would tell him she loved him and had high hopes for their future together.

Until one day, she went to pay her Fairy Stepmother a visit. “Why aren’t your eyes sparkling anymore Princess?” said she as soon as the Princess sat down. And the Princess’s eyes, without knowing how or why, filled up with tears that rolled down her cheeks and fell on the ground as intensely as water would fall from a Waterfall.

Although she knew the answer the Fairy asked: “Why are you crying Princess?”

And all of a sudden it all came back to the Princess. All her teachings, all the Animals and all of the Fairy’s tools she had been given. She had put them all aside for the Prince. He knew nothing of the Magical Realm the Princess had been receiving lessons from, and he didn’t want to know about it. As a consequence, the water was accumulated back into her body and started to spill out of her eyes at this very moment.

And that is when Spider came to help her. And Spider reminded her of what she already knew of Creativity and Weaving her own Fate. Spider told the Princess that maybe she had been caught up in her own web, failing to see the Infinite Possibilities.

The Princess listened and remembered the first time Spider came to her. As she was on her Journey with her Fairy Stepmother, Spider had then taught her creation through writing. And the Fairy had encouraged our Princess to take note of everything she saw and felt, even in the dreamtime. She didn’t understand why at first, she was feeling so much, and hearing so much, and seeing so many things she had never let herself see before, she just wanted to take it all in. But the Fairy Stepmother insisted. The Frog Princess didn’t know much back then, but if there was one thing she knew, it was not to disobey her Fairy Stepmother. So she diligently did what she was told.

After her visit to the Fairy and before she went back to her Prince, the Princess decided to pick up her forgotten book and immerse herself in it once more.

And she understood. She understood that the Prince did indeed love her very very much, but that his love did not make her grow as she believed love should. On the contrary, she had become a lesser version of her new self.

So she decided to let him go. In the hope that he would find another Princess, one that was more fitted for him, very soon. Or if they were truly meant to be together, he would come back to her eventually. But she doubted he ever would.

She on the other hand, vouched that she would not let another Prince change her. She had learned so much and given it all away because she fell in love with the idea of being in love.

And from that moment on, every time she met a Prince she would instantly judge him and not even look at him twice for this or that reason. She didn’t like this Prince’s hair. Nor did she like that Prince’s choice of words. And she definitely did not like that other Prince’s cape.

But you can guess what happened. After a while, our very own Princess felt lonely.

And that is when she met a Prince who’s eyes lit up like two little bushfires when he crossed her gaze. And she could feel a fire burning inside of her as well. But when she let him kiss her, she knew she fiercely wanted to protect herself from him.

The moment their lips touched, she focused every inch of herself into not giving in. And instead of continuing to be the lovely Princess she was when they first met, she… Ever so slowly… Switched on a new defence mechanism and without knowing… Turned into a Frog.

And well you know what happened then… That Prince Charming, as horrified as any, galloped away as fast as his stead could take him.

She was sad. And then she was angry. And eventually she decided to forget and turn back into a Princess. Because in any case, she said he wasn’t even worth her time to begin with.

And it is there and then, with her eyes and heart shielded, that our very own Princess started a long series of shape-shifting.

I mean, she had all the knowledge inside of her. She was bound to get it right at one point right?

XoXo – From the Magical Realm with Undying Love

Once upon a time was a young Princess who lived in a far far away land. Well not so far away actually, but it was the countryside. And after growing up in the heart of her old Kingdom, the young Princess felt secluded and bored. She called this place the Middle of Nowhere because that is how it felt to her.

She walked up and down, side to side, straight and in circles, trying to occupy herself in the Middle of Nowhere. And when exploring nothing was boring her more than usual, she would go deep into her mind and invent stories to entertain herself.

One day, a fellow Princess friend was visiting the Kingdom next to the Middle of Nowhere and invited our young Princess to come with her.

Our Princess begged her mother to let her go and see her friend, and to her surprise, the Queen agreed.

The young Princess didn’t know this Kingdom and she looked upon everything with excitement. More importantly, everyone she met was so interesting. There were Dukes, and Duchesses, and Counts and Marquises, and Princes and Princesses and they were all very very lovely. On their last night in the Kingdom, the Princesses attended a Ball in the Palace. There were many many people to meet and our young Princess was as happy as could be.

And then she became even happier when the Prince she thought was the most Charming of them all
was finally introduced to her. I don’t know which one of them was the shyest. But by some miracle, they did end up dancing and taking a midnight stroll together.

And even if they had only just met, the next morning when he came to see her away, they vouched they would be together. After all, they were only one Kingdom apart. And so they parted with a kiss full of promises.

They wrote to each other everyday.

In the beginning the young Princess could not believe her luck that she was receiving anything at all from such a charming Prince. But as she struggled more and more to keep herself occupied in the Middle of Nowhere, one letter a day was barely covering her thirst for information. She pressed the young Prince for more. And between receiving letters, she would bury herself in her mind and her made-up stories. Prince Charming on the other hand was a very busy young man and the time lapse between the letters slowly increased.

The more the young Princess asked for, the less she received. She, in return, became frustrated and would seek the refuge of her mind more and more often.

And that is when Frog appeared next to her.

And Frog spoke to her of water energies and emotions. He warned her not to get bogged down in day to day living and to get in touch with her true feelings.

But the young Princess did not hear, nor did she even see the Frog. She sought only the voice of the young Prince Charming and the thoughts occupying her mind. As she fell deeper into the inner workings of her brain, Frog kept warning her. And when he saw that she would never listen, Frog did what Frogs do best, he called forth the rain of Transformation. But the young Princess had fallen so deep, instead of letting the rain purify her and coming into her personal powers, she, herself, turned into a Frog.

And the Prince Charming, even though he was far away, knew what had happened and cut all contact with our young Princess.

The young Princess did not understand anything. She did not understand that instead of working with the water energies, she was being consumed by them. And the more she let herself be consumed, the sadder she became.

The years went by and our young Frog Princess grew up. She was meant to grow up into a full bloom woman but I guess it’s more appropriate to say that she grew up into a full blown toad.

She hated her new body, she hated herself, and she even had come to hate the world and all of the Prince Charmings surrounding her. On the verge of her 20^th birthday she had reached a desperate point where she was going into hiding so often she didn’t know how to interact with the world anymore. She cried and cried and finally she asked her Fairy Stepmother for help (yes we are keeping the Stepmother as the Fairy).

“Ah yes. You are ripe and ready.” Said she smiling as she saw the Frog Princess approaching.

Ripe? Ready? Was she meant to feel so wretched and ugly so that she could heal and be a normal Princess again?

It appeared so. It seemed she needed to reach such desperation that she would do anything and everything to get better. And now that she was, the Fairy Stepmother took the Frog Princess on a walk on the wild side. They went to many many sacred places and met many, many Animals who dispensed their teachings to the Frog Princess. The road was long and tough on both of them, but at the end of the journey, the Princess hadn’t turned back into the normal Princess she used to be. She was so much more.

She thanked the Fairy and went on her way.

She saw and felt that her body and her soul were both healed and were finally one. She was a happier creature than she had ever been before in her life and she made everyone who approached her happier as well. And all of a sudden everyone wanted to be close to her. She was very very shy with it all in the beginning. After being in the shadows for so long, she forgot how to be in the light. But little by little she learned how to be comfortable with it and project that light. And she was happy that she could put into practice her new learnings into her world and still continue to listen to the Animals who guided her.

And then one day.

One day she met a Prince Charming who’s eyes sparkled so bright when he looked into her own that she was scooped away. And from the moment he finally dared to kiss her, he never left her side. And both of them believed that this was their happy ending.

To Be Continued…

 

XoXo – From the Enchanted Praha Castle with Undying Love

So we left our Frog Princess right after another Prince Charming had galloped away as fast as he could.

Maybe because everything had happened so fast, it hit her in the right spot this time. Maybe. Or maybe she just had more than enough.

Whatever the reason, as soon as she shifted back into a Princess, she understood it wasn’t just her appearance and the face she shows to the world that she needed to change. Something she had forgotten had been buried deep inside of her and she needed to find out what it was before it ate her up even more and she would end up as an indefinite Frog.

And that is when her Fairy Stepmother showed up (Yes Stepmother. Let’s shake things up a bit in the fairy-tale world people). And she spoke to her of a place she could find, and animals she could seek to help her grow out of her nasty habits.

So the Princess decided to take a walk on the wild side. She went to look for the whitest sand beach in the world to purify herself. She hiked across mountains to look for the perfect horizon. She walked through endless enchanted forests to find the strongest, biggest tree and learn how to be rooted. She even went to the center of the earth to fuel her strength. Still, it felt like it wasn’t enough.

She became tired and stopped for a little while in a sacred place. A place where animals from every kingdom could find rest. And she called upon each of them to help her. Swan swiftly answered the call. And Swan talked to her about Grace, Beauty and the Power of Self. Soon enough Alligator showed up and he spoke to her of Primal Energies and the new knowledge and wisdom that come with it.

The Princess took notes and hoped she understood everything they were telling her. But she was so exhausted she eventually fell asleep.

She dreamt of dreams that felt like her past. And then she dreamt of dreams that felt like the present. And eventually she dreamt of dreams that felt like the future.

And every time she stirred she took note of everything she had seen, heard and felt just as Spider had taught her once upon a time.

Eventually she thought that the only way she would truly understand all these teachings was by going back into the world and try them out.

And when she did she came face to face with her last Prince Charming. She did and said nothing, waiting for him to run away again. But to her surprise he didn’t. He looked at her up and down and commented on every little thing he could see about her. In the beginning she didn’t pay too much attention, she was focusing every molecule of her body into not turning into a nasty Frog again. But eventually, as his comments were getting harsher and he was getting closer, she noticed she hadn’t turned into the dreaded slimy thing. And then she looked up and she saw that instead of having a Prince standing next to her, she was now in the company of a Frog.

What had happened?

And what was she to do?

She didn’t want to run away because she didn’t want to sink to all the Princes’ level. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to stay either because his ways were disturbing her. She decided she would focus on his good points and try to calm him down. But nothing was working. Eventually she felt powerless and his aggressive actions, as misguided as she believed they were, were suffocating her.

And that’s when the wizard intervened. The wizard came to the Prince now turned into a Frog and spoke to him about actions and consequences. And the Prince, after a long talk, decided to run away again.

The Princess was left alone and didn’t know if she had to thank the wizard or curse him for his intervention. Because in the end, she hadn’t had the possibility of finding out why this had happened.

She was troubled for the Prince and she hoped he wouldn’t stay too long in his dark and intoxicating Frog pond. But she remembered one of her teachings: “You cannot help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.” And she remembered it had taken her a lot of shape shifting back and forth before she started to get rid of her stubbornness and finally ask for help.

As her mind was wondering, Hummingbird sang out to her. He spoke to her about extracting the sweetness and joy from any situation in life. And as she watched Hummingbird flutter and sing amongst the flowers, she saw in it a symbol for accomplishing that that seems impossible.

So instead of thinking of what was beyond her control she decided she would focus on nurturing her own new learnings. And maybe, if one day someone should ask for her help, she hoped she would be up to the task.

XoXo – from the Praha Castle With Undying Love.

 

Next: chapter 3. The Princess is still the Frog.

I haven’t made a frog and princess analogy in a while, but now the time seems appropriate to bring the fairy-tale back.

And I was thinking, what if… Roles were reversed? Like, completely. I know the Princess is supposed to overlook the disgustingness of the Frog and kiss him and only then is she allowed to have her happy ending with Prince Charming.

But what if… Well we know Prince Charming would never ever EVER kiss anything resembling the sliminess of a Frog, so let’s not even think about that theory, but what IF Prince Charming finds the Princess, woes her, and when she finally lets him kiss her, she turns into the Frog.

What would Prince Charming do?

Well he’ll leave her on the spot I can tell you that for a fact.

So what would the Frog/Princess do?

I think I can bet you anything that after a reasonable amount of time mourning her lost love she would pick herself up, dust herself off and turn back into a Princess.

And then another Prince would come along, fall in love with her, she wouldn’t let him in in the beginning of course. But he persists. She finally falls for him. And the moment their lips touch, it triggers this magical mechanism in her body and she turns into that wet and sticky… Thing.

And the new Prince Charming, disgusted, would gallop away on his white horse.

I’m guessing that with every passing Prince, it probably gets harder and harder for the Princess to get back into her natural shape and keep faith in true love. But, as women usually do, the Princess persists in giving Princes a chance. At one point in her life, the curse has to be lifted right? She did bring it upon herself that she turns into a repugnant creature every time she gets scared.

That’s usually how it goes isn’t it? Witches only cast spells on Royalty for a reason. I don’t know what this Princess did, but it must be pretty bad.

Because how would you break that kind of spell?

I guess my advice to her would be to stop freaking out every time she likes a guy and just chill the fuck out.

But then again. Easier said than done.

And also if they run away every time instead of calming you, then they’re probably not the right Prince Charming. I bet the real Prince Charming is supposed to keep looking into your eyes and see your soul instead of the vile façade fear brings out in you.

Just for your own sake though, stop freaking out. Because you turn into a Frog in the blink of an eye, but shape shifting back into a Princess? Not so quick.

I know you tried to fend all men off as a solution. But we all know how long that lasted.

To be fair, you did manage to fend some off, but it only took one smile from that one to make you drop your sword.

So maybe, from now on, save your energy by staying your natural self and remember that Prince Charmings don’t fit into a mould. And it’s ok that they don’t come with a manual either.

But you can write about them as much as you please if it makes you feel better.

XoXo – From the Bohemian Palace with Undying Love.