Read The Prince's Ears - A story of love, listening and being bold Page 2

Some were very good friends who looked at him with quiet concern; others were people he had invited from the government, banks, charities, businesses and newspapers. Many of them looked impatient, confused and irritated.

  The Prince knew all about their busy noisy lives. He had heard them many times telling him what he should do or what he should not do. Now he was going to show them what he was doing and invite them to join him in doing it. He knew it was risky but he also knew it was the time to be bold.

  Because he was a Prince people usually followed his instructions even if they thought he was silly. They wanted to feel important and they liked to be able to tell their friends that they had visited the palace. The papers wanted to write stories about him, the businesses wanted to sell him things, the banks wanted to ‘look after’ his money, the governments wanted to make sure he didn’t say anything which would make it difficult for them to get re-elected. His friends loved him very much but worried that his ideas would make him unpopular and that this would make him sad.

  Today the Prince felt bold! His heart had told him to help his people by doing what he loved doing most. Now what the Prince loved doing more than anything in the world was gardening, which was lucky because he had many big gardens to look after! He thought of his grandson, his sons, his people and the beautiful planet and he smiled - then he laughed. Everyone went quiet, and again shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other and looked at each other with sideways glances. Then the Prince began to speak.

  “Thank you for coming to see me in my greenhouse at such short notice. As you can see I am a busy person too. I am busy planting acorns. I have called you here to let you know that from this day forward I will be working in my garden because this is the thing I love to do most in the world. If you want to speak to me you will have to come and garden with me. I am now sixty-five years old, but when I was five my father took me riding in the woods and I planted my first acorn by a little stream. The day before yesterday I visited the oak tree that acorn has now become and sat under its branches. I gathered these acorns from that very tree and am planting them today for you. I would like each of you to accept this gift and either plant it somewhere or give it as a gift to someone else.

  Still the crowd was silent.

  “As you all know I have extraordinary ears. I have heard you all talking over the years. I have heard your lives getting noisier and watched them getting faster. Your machines and gadgets set the pace and pull you this way and that. You look tired and unhappy as you queue up to spend money, sit for hours at your computers and drive slowly through the busy cities in your cars. You have no time to think or listen to your hearts. So today I invite you to take a day off! Put your jackets, ties, phones, computers and bags to one side. You are welcome to join me now in planting acorns if you wish or you can choose to walk or sit in my beautiful gardens. I only ask that you do one thing, and that is to listen to your hearts and see what they are telling you. I want my people and my grandchild to live in a world where they have time to smile and listen to one another; time to appreciate nature, time to help and support, to connect and to love. I would like it to be a fairer and more equal world, a quieter world. A world where people follow their hearts and do what they love.

  The people were silent. They all felt different things but they were mostly surprised and shocked. The Prince had said something which sounded important but they didn’t properly understand it.

  Suddenly a man’s phone rang loudly in the silent greenhouse and everyone turned to look at him. He worked for a big business in the city and was supposed to be at a meeting to suggest that a new factory be built on part of the allotments. His eyes were full of tears and he slowly took his phone from his pocket and switched it off. He then removed his jacket and threw it over a large watering can. Rolling up his sleeves he walked through the crowd to the pile of acorns. He carefully chose an acorn and began to fill a pot with the dark earth.

  The Prince smiled and said. “And now ladies and gentlemen I must get on with the rest of my life.” One by one people took off their jackets and tentatively began to plant acorns with the Prince. Some kept their coats on and walked out into the crisp morning air, noticing the dew sparkling on the grass. One or two even noticed the tiny rainbows inside each dew drop! Others decided not to stay because they were too busy and thought the prince had gone crazy!

  Those that stayed could smell the pine trees and earth. They kicked dry leaves and picked up beautiful red and orange ones, just as they had done when they were five. Slowly they remembered. They breathed deeply and fought back tears. They struggled to understand what was happening and why they felt sad.

  Their hearts were starting to wake up! It was painful and beautiful at the same time. They knew something was wrong with their noisy, busy lives. They often felt tired and unhappy but they didn’t have the time to work out what was wrong. It was easier to just continue doing what they always did.

  The people had a lovely day listening to their hearts and spending time with nature. They went home to their families clutching their pots containing acorns and told them all about their strange and unusual day.

  Not everyone thought it was good though and some wrote not very nice stories in their newspapers with titles like “Big Ears has a big idea!” Or “Dumbo is nuts about acorns!” and one even wrote “Prince goes potty in greenhouse.” But many other people wrote nice things and began to think about what the Prince had said and word spread across Albion that the Prince was now spending his time doing what he loved most - gardening!

  From that day on he held all his meetings with important leaders and businesses in the garden. (If it was raining he would go into the greenhouse.) He donated money to gardening projects and helped to create many new gardens. He grew all his own fruit and vegetables organically. He wrote books on gardening, gave interviews on gardening, painted pictures of his garden and he generally loved what he did.

  People all around the world talked about him. Some said nasty things, but some had always said nasty things. The Prince took no notice because he knew that everyone had different ideas. However, many people said good things and slowly the people of Albion started to talk to each other and to listen to their Prince. If the Prince was saying that growing food, gardening and appreciating nature was important, then maybe it was? They began to plant apple trees, they grew tomatoes, they walked in the woods, they gathered blackberries and most importantly they planted acorns!

  Over the next ten years the Prince had many brilliant ideas while he worked in his garden. He started a scheme where every child in the country planted an acorn on their first day at school. When the acorns had grown into little oak trees they were then planted on the outskirts of the towns and villages to create woodland areas.

  He made it possible for all thirteen year old children to spend time at a woodland education centre learning how to grow food organically without using chemicals and how to design and make things from natural materials. They also learnt how to care for the earth, care for people and to share things fairly. This was called Permaculture.

  Children could leave school at fifteen if they wanted to and attend one of the Prince’s ‘Centres for Growing’. They learned many useful skills and were paid to grow food for their local communities.

  Older people were encouraged to join the ‘Oak’ club. This stood for Older Age Knowledge. The older people passed on their skills and knowledge to younger people and trained them to grow and preserve food and to make useful wooden objects. They also taught many other crafts including spinning, making clothes and shoes, thatching, dry stone walling, dyeing and weaving and even how to build lovely houses with straw and mud.

  The Prince was very popular and respected by his people. Important people listened to his ideas and came up with good ideas of their own. Everyone loved going to the meetings he held in his garden. They were surrounded by flowers and butterflies and could drink real lemonad
e and apple juice! It was much more fun than sitting around a big table in an office drinking bottled water.

  Slowly but surely the world changed. The people slowed down, they laughed more, they spent more time outside, and they were healthier and happier. The machines were used less. Those that were used were designed more and more around nature and they were much quieter. People spent more time growing food, and most importantly, young people grew up knowing it was good to have quiet times in which to listen to what their hearts were telling them.

  The quiet Prince continued to garden and even allowed some of his people who had no access to land of their own to use parts of the palace gardens to grow food. His son became a great leader of the people and had good ideas of his own. His grandson grew up in a world where it was OK to have big ears and a big heart. The Prince became known as the ‘Prince with the big heart’ and lived happily ever after knowing that his people were happy and the beautiful planet was happy too.

  The end.

  Notes

  The idea for the story came from the title. I thought ‘The Prince’s Ears’ would be a great name for a children’s book, but at the