Barefoot Cinderella 7

“What do you mean?”

“Confucius told me many years ago,

“You are that old!” the princess interrupted cheekily

Winking, she continued “Well I do use a bit of magic on myself from time to time; he was a fascinating man I could listen to him for hours. Cinderella was originally Chinese you know, Could you imagine what the modern day press would have done with her slipper. I’m sorry I always digress. Things come in pairs, opposites. To appreciate one you must experience the other, night and day, hot and cold, wet and dry. Without it’s pair, you cannot understand the other.”

The princess smile emanated deep from within; relaxing from the cosseted feeling produced by this woman’s warmth and wisdom.

“I see you need to be aware of both, to be able to distinguish one from the other.”

“Precisely! I see all this modern education has done something for you. You began on a quest for happiness, in the style of your time and you found unhappiness. Look at Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty look what they went through first before they formed a relationship. And don’t for one minute think they lived happily ever after. That’s just the classic ending. What it really means is they had been unhappy enough and had become sufficiently aware to appreciate their new life when they found it”

“But they’re just fairy tales. They’re so out of date.”

“My dear they are the wisdom of all time, no one can be happy every minute of the day but you have to learn that a sunny day, a bird song, the countryside when it stops raining can make you happy. And never forget, we fairy godmothers know because of our age and wisdom even more than our magic. That also means we know how and when to use it. The problem with searching is you can never win. If you don’t find what you’re looking for it is frustrating and if you do it is often not what you expected it’s even more frustrating. The real journey is to find ourselves and finding what gives us personal peace and that my dear is inside of us.”

Pausing to take breath she continued,

“Enough of these if only’s you’ve got to stop all that nonsense and concentrate on the here and now. You both had to learn lessons; it’s all part of the journey of life. You have hurt each other by not being honest and truthful. Without trust, there can be no respect, and that has been true throughout the ages. Different times create different problems and different tests to find different solutions but real values never change and believing and fighting for love is the most important.”

“But the happiness quest I’ve been so stupid.”

“The folly of youth but you have come a long way, though as your mother has told you we woman live in turmoil until we recognise equality not as everyone being the same but everyone having the equal opportunity to find themselves then they are able to give their best to everyone else and the wider community.