There Was Now a Moon Circle on Thursdays

Lady Uppity had slowly, finally, stopped assigning authorship of her inner state to other people. She now recognized just how deeply she had betrayed herself by remaining tethered to others’ opinions and needs.

The atmosphere of the kingdom of Proper Behavior — so named by the Duke of Worrington — was changing. Once, it had been a place dominated by bleak discontent, where seriousness masqueraded as truth.

But now, ever since Lady Uppity created the Room of Her Own Damn Mind, there had been an undeniable shift in the current.

The women of the palace (and a few of the men) began creating their own Damn Mind rooms. And that changed the vibe, charged the air, and set everyone’s heart on fire.

Well… almost everyone.

The Duke of Worrington simply could not understand how, in a world steeped in despair and hopelessness, anyone could possibly be happy.

He grumbled and objected to nearly everything.

The morning bells — so annoying.

The humming in the east corridor — why? It served no purpose.

He objected to the women painting flowers on the old stone benches. Those benches had been perfectly fine the way they were. Why change them now?

And oh, the suspicious rise in herbal tinctures.

“What is all this singing in the kitchen and dancing in the gardens?” the Duke protested.

The more laughter and merriment there was, the more he complained.

“Oh, poppycock!” he cried out. “Such rot, such utter witless foolishness! Don’t they see the truth? Perhaps they’ve all simply gone mad after snorting too many poppies.”

His complaints became louder and more frequent. So much so that many of the palace residents and townsfolk had begun referring to him as the Duke of Discontent.

“Oh,” they’d laugh, “the Duke of Discontent is in a mood again.”

All throughout the land, near and far, there were changes that made no sense at all to the Duke.

“Why,” he cried, “must things change?”

The Duke brooded endlessly over the strange new ways of the kingdom. Why wasn’t Lady Calliope knitting instead of writing poetry?

And goodness gracious, what in the devil was Lady Diana doing all those long hours in the forest?

Magic was afoot.

Oh yes, things had changed.

The kingdom of Proper Behavior was becoming known as the kingdom of Sheer Delight.

Love’s fragrance bloomed brightly alongside the roses and daffodils, the mums and lilacs.

The Duke, of course, continued grumbling.

Someone was always humming.

Someone was forever burning incense.

And apparently there was now a moon circle on Thursdays.

But Lady Uppity simply smiled, watered her roses, and returned to the Room of Her Own Damn Mind.

Which, as it turns out, had very good lighting and remarkably peaceful acoustics.