Once Upon a Time

It's easy to believe in magic when you're young. Anything you couldn't explain was magic then. It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible - elves probably more so.--Charles de Lint 

Yesterday I laid down in the afternoon and began reading my fairy tales.    Next thing I realized hours had passed.  Amazing how you can lose track of time when you are having fun.  I learned how salt got into the ocean, and  red the tales of the Enchanted Fig and the The Wonderful Birch, amongst others.  I can always get lost in a good book, but there's something different about getting lost in the land of make believe.  It brings back lots of wonderful memories. 

Once upon a time there was a  little girl who  believed in fairies, elves, and magical creatures of all kinds.  Yes, when I was a child, the world was full of magic.   Whenever I went walking in the woods, the fairy folk were everywhere, flitting through the bushes, balancing on the petals of the wildflowers.  Yes, it is different when you are young.  It's not only acceptable for you to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, but it is expected of you.  Who can forget that ominous day when they discovered that Santa was not real.  I remember the day clearly.  I was at a friends house playing on the swing set with she and her brother.   It was cold out; I remember wearing my hat and scarf.  Had to be close to Christmas because somehow the talk came around to Santa Claus, and when it did, it was like the two of them jumped me.  You remember how it was when you were a child.  If you knew a secret, you just couldn't wait to tell someone else.

Talk about a devastated little girl.  I flew home with tears in my eyes and confronted my parents who confirmed the worst.  So much about the magic of Christmas changed for me that day.  There would be no more lying awake on Christmas Eve listening for the faint jingle of a sleigh bell or peeking through that crack in my door, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man in red.  Somehow, now as I think of it, that was a signal that soon childhood would end and adolescence with all of its trials and tribulations would set in.

Think back to when you were a child, to a time when  you were able to play, to laugh, to have fun and really live, a time you would scream and make noise for no other reason aside from the fact that you had fun doing it!   Can you remember making games out of nothing?  I can.  My grandmother's reddish broom became my trusty roan, Sowdy, who I would ride the entire day as I embattled Indians and gunslingers of the old west. (I can't believe I even remember my broom horses name.)  My grandmother's basement served double duty as Miss Kitty's saloon and a classroom on those days I preferred to be a teacher.  

Ah, the magic of childhood...a magical  world of creation and pretend, of playing house or cowboys and Indians. When we were children, it was easy to be anything and anyone we chose.  One day I would be a Texas cowboy, the next a beautiful princess, and the next I would be living in a world of fairies, wizards, and dragons.

And then, one day, that magical world wasn't there anymore.  Now I found myself concerned about clothing, hair styles, boyfriends, and dances.  I was growing up and leaving behind the excitement of those infinite possibilities that had been a part of my childhood.  And it happens to all of us.  We grew up, and somewhere along the line we chose to let go of all of the spendor  and wonder we once knew.  Fairy tales are just that...tales...or so we chose to believe.  

The truth is, those beautiful memories of childhood can never be forgotten; the magic is still there.  We just have to find it.  When I come home from work particularly stressed, I dig out my crayons and coloring book of princesses and fairies and at 64, I am not above finding some paper dolls on the internet and cutting them out and playing with them.  Fairy tales are for adults as much as they are for children for our inner child lives within all of us.  It doesn't matter where you live; fairy tales and fairies have been with us since the dawn of time.

But what about the magic around us every day?   Our world is physically made up of beauty and wonder...the beauty of a sunset, the stars shining brightly in the night sky, the ever-changing moon, the glory of the sun's rays, the first buds of Spring, the miracle of new life.  Yes, reading and dreaming about fairy tales can take us away into that magical place, but so can the beauty of nature.  I prefer both.

"If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower."--Samuel Smiles