There once was a princess who lived in a beautiful castle
In a wondrous kingdom nestled by the gentle sea.
Her hair was dark as night, her eyes soft and brown as a fawn.
She danced and played among the dandelions
Blowing they’re thistles to the four winds,
She swam among the lilies, and drank pure waters.

One day the princess was walking barefoot through the grass
The cool kisses of each gentle blade of grass caressing her feet
And the warm sunlight browning her golden skin,
When she came across a cake with thirteen candles on it.
She smiled and ran up to it, and as expected her name was there.
With great joy she took a deep breath and blew them out.

Above her, there suddenly came cracks of thunder
As the clouds swam in and around her kingdom.
The waters that the lilies were in stopped glowing…
The dandelions, their thistles gone, withered…
And the cool green grass beneath her feet turned brown.
Her eyes filled with tears as above her came an overwhelming voice.

“Now is the age of your adulthood,” it began,
“You will see the world through new eyes.”
“You time in this garden of happiness was borrowed,”
“And now the debt must be paid in full.”
“You will no longer drink pure waters,”
“And you will no longer dance freely as you once did”

And the princess looked up, her eyes full of tears and said,
“Why?” and she repeated her plea “Why have you taken this from me?”
And with her arms out to the side, she sank helpless to her knees
Until the thunder stopped and the clouds settled, blocking the light,
And again the voice came to her, matter of fact and plain
“Because you are no longer a child. And you must learn the truth of things.”

She looked around her world as in a swirl of hate, her garden changed.
Her dandelions now withered, turned dry and blew away in the dust.
The waters in her pond, turned brown and dried into the mud.
And the lilies, her precious lilies, withered and sank into the moist earth.
She looked behind her and her castle once strong, crumbled before her.
The once gentle sea, raged and slapped the shores, and the winds blew fierce and strong.

And as she blinked, before her eyes she saw strange things.
She saw skin growing gray and wrinkled, cracked from the sun.
She saw her hair, grow long and split, turning white with age.
She saw all things around her dying and felt helpless.
Her bottom lip trembled as she stared at her own two hands,
And the tears flowed, as she remained unblinking.

She cast her eyes on the cake still white with fresh frosting,
Candles and their slithering smoke still warm with embers,
As through her mind pulsed the knowledge of life.
She wept and looked up pleading one last time…
“Why give me all these beautiful things,” she began,
“Only to take them from me as I watch myself slowly die?”

And one final time the voice came to her from the blackened clouds,
“Because each seed must blossom, and then wither,”
“Each babe must mature and return to the void,”
“Each day blessed with sunshine must face the rains.”
“But remember this…beauty that is seen is not what matters,”
“It is the beauty that you make that is important.”

And her tears slowed as she stared up at the sky as the voice became many,
“Within you is the power of creation and destruction,”
“For if that which you seek you find not within yourself”
“You will never find it without.” their voices echoed.
She lay there upon her knees and stared as the clouds cleared,
And the stormy sears calmed once more.

She knew one day, the sun would bring back the flowers,
One day her castle would stand strong again,
One day the rains would fill the pond,
Which would in turn breath life into the buried lilies.
She knew her world would be as it was before,
And that it was up to her to make sure that happened.

She smiled as she knew she it would be more beautiful,
Her childhood days were lost now forever,
But there were new days of happiness to be found.
All the things she had seen would come to pass,
However she realized that all good journeys must come to a final destination,
But what made them good was not the destination itself, but the journey.

Many years passed, and the princess made good her promise.
Her garden flourished, and the waters became pure,
The lilies bloomed in the pond, and the grass grew green.
She built her castle back up strong and tall,
And the dandelions became covered in the soft thistles.
She had created what had been destroyed.

One day the princess, now gray from age,
Began to lay a circle of stones at the base of an apple tree.
She took a long walk around her castle looking at each stone she had laid,
And another by the seas which had comforted her,
Through the garden that she herself had tended,
And came finally to the apple tree next to the pond.

She leaned down and took a sip of the water, pure and sweet,
Crawled within the circle, and laid down.
Then she looked up at the star lit sky and smiling died.
She looked peaceful and happy, leaving a stone hanging on the tree which read:
For if that which you seek you find not within yourself,
You will never find it without.

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