Letter to a Fellow Princess

Ariel –

Do you remember – that one time – when we were princesses?

I have lots of favorite photos, memories, moments – but those photos from that one day on the beach – when we were both still in our dresses from the wedding, heading towards the horizon where the sun dipped into the ocean – they always strike me as special, almost magical. Those moments – those frames frozen in the midst of our joy – our togetherness – seem so perfect.

Did I know then that even princesses have to grow up?

That day – standing by your side on the beach – looking as though neither of us had a single care in the world – could I have imagined the distance that would separate us now?

But I suppose that question is irrelevant. The future is never predictable – even when we know what to expect.

The real question is – I suppose – were we any happier for not knowing?

Has the sun truly sunk away – darkness smothering the world in its absence – or is the change just an illusion? Our lives are filled with hundreds – thousands – of sunsets, nights, days, and dawns – is it too much to imagine that our experience is more akin to that eternal cycling than to a single journey into eternal darkness? Maybe it just feels that way because we’re heading into winter – with shortening days and lengthening nights.

Do you think I could learn to believe that love – reaching out of myself towards you – could turn that tide? Do you think I could learn to take the bad in stride with the good – to lean on your shoulder and cry in your arms just like I once laughed by your side that day on the beach?

Would it make a difference to know that growing up doesn’t have to mean growing apart? That there are dimensions greater than distance and bonds stronger than loneliness – that not everything we’re told is always true – that sometimes things are more complicated than black and white – that sometimes princesses’ stories end with neither a happily ever after or a broken heart? Or even that – sometimes – brokenness exists to bring us to a deeper beauty than we could ever have imagined.