We all remember that there’s a story about a princess who kisses a frog and then the frog turns into a handsome prince. The way I remember the story, the point is that eventually, if I try hard enough, one day I will find my prince charming. I tend to focus on the finding my prince part of that story. But there’s more to the story than that. I’m sure some of you will remember the whole story, I’m just surprised by how much of it I have forgotten.
The frog prince is based on the story of three sisters who have a sick mother. Their mother needs water from a special well but it is guarded by an ugly frog. The frog refuses to give the sisters the water unless one of them agrees to marry him. Eventually one of them agrees to marry the frog to save her mother. To her surprise he transforms into a handsome prince when she kisses him.
Now the interesting thing is the moral of this story. I am going to quote this directly from the website I found it on. It is so specific and I have gotten so far away from this meaning of the story in my focus on the prince that if I do not quote it, I will get it wrong. The moral of the frog prince story is this:
“in order to heal ourselves and others, it is often required to face that part of us that we have hidden from ourselves, because we find it unacceptable and ugly. When we can honestly look at all aspects of ourselves in the face and accept them, we will find the ugliness is washed away”
This quote is taken from Shamanic Journey
So how does that work? How can kissing an ugly frog be about facing the ugly in ourselves? Well you have to remember that when interpreting symbols in dreams or stories it is useful to think of every item and thing in the story as representing ourselves. So when the girl kisses a frog, it is you kissing the ugly parts of yourself. For me, getting the moral of this story is really important because it changes it significantly. It’s not about getting the prince, it’s about accepting your own ugly and shameful parts of yourself. It’s not about finding someone or something out there, it’s about finding acceptance and peace in there, inside yourself. So stop looking for the handsome prince and the fairytale ending, start looking for your ugly parts and start being kind and accepting to the unacceptable bits of you, stop hiding and feeling ashamed, let the ugliness wash away.
The burden of wings 
Never thought of it that way. But it makes sense when you think about it. But how many people would rather keep looking for their prince than looking for their ugly parts?
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