Beautiful

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful young princess. She lived in a beautiful castle, had beautiful things, had beautiful friends; her whole life was beautiful. Then one day a dark cloud formed over her beautiful world, and it began to rain. As it rained, all of the princesses beautiful things were washed away. The trees were stripped; their leaves wasted away. The sun no longer shined. Even the birds ceased their happy chatter as the color dripped from their feathers. Everything went silent, and the princess was frightened to find herself in a colorless wasteland that was anything but beautiful. The princess called out to her friends to come comfort her, but heard no reply. She was all alone in an ugly, dark, drab world. As the she looked around at the colorless, sad world, a huge wind came and swept across the land, flattening everything in its path. As the wind came closer, the princess tried to hide. But the wind knew where she was, and found her. As it tore at her clothes, and began to pull her up, ready to destroy her, the princess cried out a name. Immediately the wind was banished, and she fell to the ground crying. From her tears there bloomed a single red rose. It was so beautiful that the princess couldn’t help but smile. In the midst of despair and bleakness, hope bloomed. Finding comfort in the rose, the princess stood and began to walk through the wasteland. She didn’t know where she was going, or how long it would take to get there; but she did know one thing. She wasn’t alone. He was with her. And that knowledge, was, well…Beautiful.