Princess Sunshine#
An allegory for a dear friend with major depression, 2014-12-15
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Princess Sunshine. She had bright yellow hair and an even brighter smile. She loved to read and write books with her older or younger siblings. She was tender-hearted and loving, and the story was told that once she gave a cold beggar the coat off her back. Almost everyone in the kingdom felt happier after she visited. She was bright and insightful but loved people whether or not they understood the great mysteries. At her birth, and again several times thereafter, wise men had proclaimed that she would grow up to marry a strong and loving prince and help save the world. Princess Sunshine was happy about that and enjoyed dreaming of it, and tried hard not to be proud.
But as she grew, Princess Sunshine discovered that she could not do everything. She couldn’t do everything all at once, but worse, some things she could not do just right even singly, no matter how hard she tried. The king and queen told her she still did most of them better than most other people, but their words did not reassure her: she knew they loved her and was sure that love blinded them to her imperfections. Princess Sunshine became sadder and sadder. Maybe the wise men were mistaken, she thought. Maybe she would never find the prince, or she would find one who eventually would reveal himself to be a cleverly disguised vulgar boor. And she was certain that she had neither the skills nor the power to save the world. Princess Sunshine dressed in a drab, workaday dress and cast down her eyes, and a saying went abroad in the land: “The clouds have covered the sunshine.”
After many days of bleakness and the passage of the seasons, the worst of the clouds blew over, as they always do, but Princess Sunshine still carried a shadow in her heart. Then one night she dreamed vividly, as if she were visiting another world. In her dream, she wandered for a very long time in search of she knew not what. Then a resplendent being appeared before her, with a countenance that revealed him to be as gentle and loving as he was puissant and wise. She felt ashamed of her attire and ashamed that she had not prepared a gift, and she fell to the ground. But he called her by name, raised her by the hand, and smiled at her. “Stand, Sunshine,” he said, and she recognized his voice as that of the great King-over-the-sea. “You are one of my daughters, and you will always be welcome in my presence. I love you. You are partly right about yourself and partly wrong. You are right that you cannot do the work that was foretold for you. It is broad as the eternities in consequence, and deep as the ocean in sacrifice, and no mortal is equal to it. But you are misled in your belief that you cannot do what I ask you to do. For it is my work, and I will accomplish it. You need only allow me to guide you. I will tell you day by day what you need to do, and as you develop the capacity to learn and demonstrate that you can obey, I will teach you how to do what I assign you and why I assigned it. Therefore study daily the words that I have already given you and keep your ears open to hear my counsel. When the winds blow cold fear into your heart, remember the warmth of my love, which will stay with you no matter how far you stray from the paths I assign you. Now go to, and fear not to do what I have called you to do.” He enfolded her in his arms and smiled gently into her eyes before turning and disappearing from her view.
Princess Sunshine awoke sweetly from her dream and lay there with a smile on her face and true peace in her heart. She arose from her bed, burst forth into song, dressed in bright colors, and resumed her visits to the people of the kingdom. Her life was not perfect, and she knew more than ever that she was not perfect, but she knew that the great King-over-the-sea had a great mission for her, one that she could not do herself, but one that would elevate her heart and her mind as she lent herself to it with full purpose.
The saying went throughout the kingdom that the sun had shone again. She heard the saying, and she smiled, because she knew who gave the sun its light. And she lived happily—most of the time—ever after.