Page 39 - Three of Happiness

The Queen goes back to the forest and tells the Elf of her adventures and how she completed all of the tasks. He gives her the key to the “Tree of Happiness” and she goes inside. She immediately jumps out to tell him that it is just an old
hollow tree.
Many of us are constantly looking for some type of magic “Tree of Happiness.” We look for some person or possession that will make our life perfect and happy. We tell ourselves that “someday” such-and-such will happen. The Elf realized that the Queen was this type of person and in their first meeting he asked her a series of questions about the things that were bothering her.
At the end of the story, he asks her about those things that were of such concern to her when they first met. He asked if people still disliked her or if the people were still all poor and stupid and what about that Dragon?
She replied that all of these problems were fixed and that the Dragon had run away. Then she told the Elf that she was very, very happy. “You see,” said the Elf, “It really is the Tree of Happiness and you may never need to come back to it again.”
The story ends with the Queen coming to the realization that all of her original concerns were no longer problems. She had overcome her fears. She had gotten rid of the Wizard Statements she had believed. She had learned how to make friends. She had run off her Dragon. The Queen was in charge of her life.
Being in charge of her life is what the Elf meant when he said, “You may never need to come back to it again .” She need not be overly dependent on others or fearful of life difficulties.
She will have the confidence to face any of the difficulties that she may have in life. With what she had learned through the accomplishment of the Tasks, she was now truly in control of her own happiness.
The Tree of Happiness is available for all of us if we recognize our “Tasks” and “Dragons,” and go about doing whatever is necessary to get our own personal “Key.”
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