On Loving That Which is Not Yet Tame

"What does that mean - 'tame'?"

asked the little prince

"It means to establish ties.

One only understands things that one tames.

Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made up at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore. If you want a friend, tame me.."

said the fox.

"What must I do to tame you?" asked the little price.

"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me - like that - in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..."

Exerpt taken from

~ The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

And so it was with the girl and her swans.

Each morning, as the dawn of a new day yawned

at the mouth of the river

right at

the very point

 where the river spilled into Long Island Sound.

The girl was there to greet all that was good.

The sun and the scent of the marsh

the ebb and the flow of the water

as it breathed like the rest of us.

She also greeted the swans.

They danced in the

shadow

and in the

light

of each new day.

Others cautioned her to let them be.

She did not listen

 she only loved the two even more.

The dance continued

day in

and

day out.

Each day, she got a little closer

Before long,

they knew her voice

and she could tell the two

apart from one another.

Then one day

in a gesture of trust,

he ate from her hand

and the taming

had begun.

It was not only the taming

of the beautiful creature

known as a swan.

It was also

the taming

of her heart.

When the cygnets came in the springtime

they too learned that trust

was a good thing.