Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Lady and the Unicorn
The Lady and the Unicorn
Once there was a lady who only believed in what she could see and had already experienced. She did not believe in mythical creatures. She liked dreaming of them, thinking of them, even searching for them, but did not ever expect to find one because she knew that they did not exist. Her favorite pastime was to go into the forest and look for unicorns. She knew she would never find one, but pretended that she was really searching for one and it made her happy to spend so much time in pursuit of this fabled creature.
One day while observing wild flowers, she saw a flash of white just beyond a stand of many trees in the midst of the forest. She told herself that it might be a unicorn, and then laughed at the silly thought and decided it must have been an albino deer. On another expedition to the forest searching for the mythical beast, she observed hoof prints. They were far bigger than those made by the horses she had seen, but thought some farmers draft horse must have wandered here on the forest path.
About a month later, in the middle of summer, she was humming a tune to herself while glancing from side to side looking for wild flowers. When she turned a corner on the path, she came face to face with a large white creature standing only a few feet away. She thought to herself that it was a funny place for a horse to be standing and wondered why his rider had dismounted and left his horse standing in the middle of the path. As she stood looking at the creature, her mouth dropped open in surprise. This creature had a single blue horn projecting from his forehead and deep green eyes. He was as white as the clouds sailing overhead on a bright summer day.
The woman shook her head in disbelief. It could not be; how could it? No, she must be dreaming or hallucinating. This could not be a unicorn, for they do not exist. “Go away!” she said. “You can not be real. I do not believe in you.” Then the unicorn answered her saying, “I am real. I have watched you walking through the forest for these many years and discovered you were looking for me. Here I am. Now that you have found me, your quest is at an end, for now you can quit seeking and start getting to know me.” “I cannot get to know you, you do not exist!” she said profoundly. “All my life I have known I was chasing a dream. But I preferred the dream to reality although I kept them separate because everyone knows that unicorns do not exist. If I close my eyes, I am sure you will disappear, because I do not believe in you and you are only a figment of my imagination.”
To this the unicorn replied, “Dear sweet lady, you have indeed been searching for me all your life. Just because you did not believe I existed, was not a sign that I did not. I am here because of your heart cry for knowing a unicorn. You have called me to yourself and I cannot leave now. I have made contact with you, and according to the code of the unicorns, we must be close friends for the rest of our lives.”
The lady was dumbfounded by the unicorn’s words. She had never imagined that she would one day come face to face with her hearts desire because she was sure it was founded on a fable. She had fun thinking about unicorns, dreaming of them too. Where had she gone wrong? What force was compelling her to live what was not real? She denied it, she refused to believe it, and she was totally disgusted with herself for ever imagining that she should search for a unicorn in the first place.
Sweet lady, you have come face to face with a unicorn. Perhaps instead of running from me and denying I exist, you should take time to get to know me. You never know when a unicorn will come along again and if you find you love me, you may find a way to keep me near you after all.
I suppose that if this story had a moral, it would be; be careful what you wish for, what you search for, for it may find you, then what will you do? You might say you do not believe in love, yet, what will you do if you should find it one day?
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Once there was a lady who only believed in what she could see and had already experienced. She did not believe in mythical creatures. She liked dreaming of them, thinking of them, even searching for them, but did not ever expect to find one because she knew that they did not exist. Her favorite pastime was to go into the forest and look for unicorns. She knew she would never find one, but pretended that she was really searching for one and it made her happy to spend so much time in pursuit of this fabled creature.
One day while observing wild flowers, she saw a flash of white just beyond a stand of many trees in the midst of the forest. She told herself that it might be a unicorn, and then laughed at the silly thought and decided it must have been an albino deer. On another expedition to the forest searching for the mythical beast, she observed hoof prints. They were far bigger than those made by the horses she had seen, but thought some farmers draft horse must have wandered here on the forest path.
About a month later, in the middle of summer, she was humming a tune to herself while glancing from side to side looking for wild flowers. When she turned a corner on the path, she came face to face with a large white creature standing only a few feet away. She thought to herself that it was a funny place for a horse to be standing and wondered why his rider had dismounted and left his horse standing in the middle of the path. As she stood looking at the creature, her mouth dropped open in surprise. This creature had a single blue horn projecting from his forehead and deep green eyes. He was as white as the clouds sailing overhead on a bright summer day.
The woman shook her head in disbelief. It could not be; how could it? No, she must be dreaming or hallucinating. This could not be a unicorn, for they do not exist. “Go away!” she said. “You can not be real. I do not believe in you.” Then the unicorn answered her saying, “I am real. I have watched you walking through the forest for these many years and discovered you were looking for me. Here I am. Now that you have found me, your quest is at an end, for now you can quit seeking and start getting to know me.” “I cannot get to know you, you do not exist!” she said profoundly. “All my life I have known I was chasing a dream. But I preferred the dream to reality although I kept them separate because everyone knows that unicorns do not exist. If I close my eyes, I am sure you will disappear, because I do not believe in you and you are only a figment of my imagination.”
To this the unicorn replied, “Dear sweet lady, you have indeed been searching for me all your life. Just because you did not believe I existed, was not a sign that I did not. I am here because of your heart cry for knowing a unicorn. You have called me to yourself and I cannot leave now. I have made contact with you, and according to the code of the unicorns, we must be close friends for the rest of our lives.”
The lady was dumbfounded by the unicorn’s words. She had never imagined that she would one day come face to face with her hearts desire because she was sure it was founded on a fable. She had fun thinking about unicorns, dreaming of them too. Where had she gone wrong? What force was compelling her to live what was not real? She denied it, she refused to believe it, and she was totally disgusted with herself for ever imagining that she should search for a unicorn in the first place.
Sweet lady, you have come face to face with a unicorn. Perhaps instead of running from me and denying I exist, you should take time to get to know me. You never know when a unicorn will come along again and if you find you love me, you may find a way to keep me near you after all.
I suppose that if this story had a moral, it would be; be careful what you wish for, what you search for, for it may find you, then what will you do? You might say you do not believe in love, yet, what will you do if you should find it one day?
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