The Greatest Queen there ever was

Once upon a time there was a queen of a beautiful kingdom, who lived happily ever after with her king. They had met in a crazy, fairy tale story and were now living their lives together. There was however one question that the new queen had not considered before: how would her story continue now that she was a queen? Surely it did not just end with “and they lived happily ever after”!?

She had heard and read so many stories of evil, jealous, power hungry and vain queens that she was terrified of becoming one herself. Did a good queen even exist anywhere? She certainly had never heard of one. There were plenty of inconsequential queens around, just side characters to stories about other people, but when was there ever a story about a good queen, who managed to help make her kingdom thrive?

The queen decided that if good queens did not exist, she would be the first, because the only queen she ever wanted to be, was a good one. Better even, a great one!

The queen had the greatest of intentions, but lacked the answer to one single question:

“Being a good queen, what exactly does that mean?”

What if it meant self-sacrifice? Was that worth it? What if it meant an endless list of obligations? What if it meant she would have to be perfect, flawless, selfless, which she certainly was not?

The queen got confused and became very aware of her shortcomings. She started being afraid of making the wrong choices, of being blamed for wrong decisions, because was that not what happened to people in power? That they were blamed for everything that went wrong in the world? She would need to be perfect first, faultless, never make mistakes, then she could be a great queen!

For a long time the queen tried to be as perfect and flawless and selfless as she could, but whatever she tried, it was never quite good enough. She was never quite good enough. She realized that she would never be perfect and became desperate. One day she had had enough and she ran out of the castle and went to sit by the waterfall in the royal garden. Maybe she should not try to be a queen at all…

She cried warm tears and wished she was someone else, someone better, someone who deserved to be queen, when all of a sudden, a female singing voice broke through the sound of the falling water:

“Come to me and you will see

the glorious queen that you could be!”

The queen looked up and saw a hand emerging from the waterfall, the index finger beckoning her to come.

She did not need to think for long, she waded through the water until she got close enough to be able to touch the hand. Somehow, it looked like her own, but more beautiful… royal! The hand took her hand and drew her into the waterfall. As she was stepping through, the hand disappeared, or rather, it seemed like it was… disappearing into her…

She arrived on the other side and everything looked the same, only it was… perfect! The trees were breathtakingly beautiful as they swung in the wind and the ripples on the water seemed to be singing the most harmonious quiet symphony. She bent down to look at her reflection in the water and saw that she had transformed into the most beautiful creature she had ever seen! Her belly was still there and so were the wrinkles on her face, but they were all perfect, just the way they were!

“Where am I?” she managed to draw enough breath to ask. The same magical melody sounded again through the forest, seemingly sung by nature itself.

“You are exactly where you were before,

only you stepped through a magical door.”

“You mean the waterfall?”

Laughter, like little bells in the wind, filled the air and almost got the queen to start dancing out of pure joy.

“The waterfall is just a tool I used

to stop you from being so confused.

The simple act of stepping through,

erased all beliefs that were not serving you.

Now you can clearly feel and see

that there is no one else you have to be!

Just like humanity is growing, so are you,

every step is essential, the backward ones too!

No need for all of your self-loathing and sorrow,

love yourself first, the rest will follow!

Find pride in your mistakes

and cherish all of your flaws,

Just learn from them

and you will be

the greatest Queen there ever was!”

The queen memorized the song, word for word, until she was sure she would never forget again how beautiful she was and how magical the world she was living in was. She then returned to her garden behind the waterfall to look for her husband, the king, who was resting in their royal bed.

She went to lie beside him and said:

“I know now how to become the greatest queen there ever was.”

“You already are the greatest queen to me, so I do not know who else you need to be,” he smiled, “now come here so I can squeeze thee!”

They both laughed and fell asleep together and cuddled happily ever after.

The End