The Princess and The Passage Of Time

There once was a Princess who did not like the Autumn and Winter months and would do everything within her power to hide them away.

“Tell my Royal painters to go out and paint all the leaves on the Autumn trees a bright, summery shade of green. I cannot stand that awful, drab, brown colour”, she would command and her royal
painters would have to do just that; paint every leaf of every tree in her country bright green with little brushes and, when the leaves started to fall off as Autumn leaves naturally do, the poor Royal carpenters would have to go round with ladders and pots of glue, sticking them back onto branches.

Then, whenever the Winter came, though all the little children of her Kingdom loved playing in the snow and making snowmen, the Princess hated it so much that she would order for all the snow to be dug up or melted or even died green so that it looked just like grass from a distance and artificial summer flowers of fabric and paper would be planted all around while her servants would stand below her chamber window and make the calls of Swallows and Cuckoos and all the birds of the Summer.

Unfortunately for the Princess, Mother Nature who rules over the entire realms of time and space and governs all with her laws, was quite offended by her behaviour but, still, wishing to give the Princess a chance to change her ways, Nature sent out three messengers to her palace.

The first messenger that was a little sycamore seed, floating upon the breeze, came in the spring-time and, determined to speak to the queen, floated in through her window but the moment that the seed landed at her feet, the Princess angrily stepped upon it, grinding it into the ground with the heel of a diamond slipper.

The second, a blue bird, came in the Summer, flapping in through her window and, perching upon her throne, started to sing its message prettily but the Princess wouldn’t listen and ordered that the blue bird be caught and put in a cage to be hung in her darkest dungeon.

The third messenger; a lion, with a fiery coloured mane and fur of gold, came in the Autumn but the palace guards were told by the Princess not to let it into the palace and to shoot it with arrows and so, sadly, the lion was killed and its head mounted upon a palace wall.

When Mother Nature saw what had become of her three messengers, she got very angry and then, soon after that, a bright shining star like a giant crystal and diamond snowflake appeared in the eastern sky and with it a Winter came but it was a winter more harsh and terrible than any there had ever been in that kingdom and, once it arrived, it refused ever to leave.

There was no Spring after that and no Summer; not even a golden coloured Autumn, just white, cold winter snow and ice all year.

Of course, this didn’t make the Princess or her subjects very happy because, for one thing, without the Spring and Summer, all the fields in the kingdom could not produce wheat or corn and the trees in the orchards and vines in the vineyards could not bear fruit nor could the fishermen catch any fish because the lakes and rivers all froze solid and so, before long, there was no food at all in the whole
Country and all of the Princesses subjects began to starve.

Quite understandably, this made the Princess very unpopular.

“She’s not a nice princess; she’s an ice princess”, people said, “She’s brought this curse upon us with all her leaf painting and snow hating and now the snow won’t ever go”.

There were even murmurings of a revolution and the poor Princess feared for both her crown and her head.

Sobbing, she embraced the marble statues of her late Mother and Father who had once been King and Queen of that land.

“Oh, Mother and Father. What shall I do?”, she asked, “The people cannot bear this winter to
continue and they blame me for it”.

To her amazement, the statue of her father, with a kindly smile, answered her.

“All things must yield to the passage of time, my daughter. Even mountains that tower above our heads will someday kneel and bow. However, without time nothing good can ever come to pass; without the hour of darkness there would never be a dawn; without Winter there could be neither Spring nor Summer . I and your Mother, who are part of Heaven will someday return to the Earth, for Life and Afterlife are merely Seasons in eternity. Thaw out your heart and the ice and snow of this winter will also melt”.

It’s then that the eyes of the queen lit up with a brilliant idea.

“We shall have a Carnival to celebrate this winter”, she announced publicly , “And it will be bright and gay, with fireworks and balloons and music and dancing; jugglers, fire eaters and acrobats. It will be the biggest Winter Carnival ever held and, because food is in short supply, we will sell off my treasures; my gold and jewels; my many houses, to buy food for the poor”.

Everyone throughout the land rejoiced when they heard this news; especially when they heard about the food which was to be imported from neighbouring kingdoms and then, soon after, in a large plaza in the centre of the capital of her kingdom, there was held an enormous carnival with all the things that the Princess had promised; music and dancing and fireworks and even toys and sweets for all the poor children; more sweets than any of them could ever hold.

Then the princess stood upon the balcony of her palace and made a speech; the little blue bird
she had so cruelly imprisoned now sitting and twittering freely upon her shoulder.

“Let everyone here know that I am truly sorry for what has happened and admit that I was wrong about the Autumn and the Winter. Even now, as I look down upon the smiling, happy faces of my subjects, I know how beautiful the winter can be when we are happy and our hearts are warm”.

Hearing these words of apology, Mother Nature’s own heart softened and she forgave the Princess and, the next thing that happened was that, all about her and under the feet of all the people who had gathered to hear her speak, the snow and ice began to melt.

All over the Kingdom, in fact, Springtime started to spread while, over head, the sky that had been gloomy and grey started to become blue as the Sun shone brightly.

“Oh thank you”, said the Princess, a bright smile spreading over her face, “Thank you”.

Then the carnival continued, though it was not a Winter Carnival anymore but a Carnival to
celebrate the return of the Spring.