My Dad on Love and Relationships...

Conversations with My Father ~ ~ A Modern Day Fable

This captures a real conversation I had with my Father in 1999, after a relationship ended and I was broken hearted. I was blown away by the discussion and my Dad’s analogy. Here was a glimpse of insight from a man who was happily married for 59 years.

Today in a phone conversation with my father, he asked again “if I had heard from the Magical Princess.”

I was shocked; I hadn’t heard my ex called the Magical Princess in over a month. I sat frozen in my chair for a moment and contemplated all that nickname meant to me, the joy in the past and the hope in the future.

My Father keeps insisting we talk on neutral ground. I have never heard so much optimism in his voice. “You two must talk and be open about everything that is important to each other.”

I said to him, “I am learning that I fall in love with Princesses and then set myself up to be the Perfect Prince and when I fail I do myself in. I become so discouraged I retreat and lose myself.” I went on and I told my Father “everyone encourages me to find a simple maiden girl, but I can’t ever imagine that that would ever satisfy me in the long run."

He replied, “of course not, you are a Prince, and were raised around Princesses and your mother is now a Queen, you will have your Magical Princess, I am sure of that. You must trust in your future and in your love. You would not ever be happy with a simple maiden girl, you are fair too complex yourself to settle for such. You will find your heart again with the Magical Princess, if you keep it open and expose your soul.” We laughed, seemingly to understand each other at a new level between men, not as a father and son, but as man to man grounded by relationships and the loves that have focused their lives.

And my Father finished by saying, “A Princess wants perfection, it is her reflection she is seeking; she knows though deep within her soul that she is not perfect nor could the man she love ever be, and therefore, mostly a Princess wants love.” And suddenly I knew and understood more about my parents’ relationship than ever before.

Perhaps my Father is indeed a very wise and rich King.