Life takes energy! Great
energy. The devil’s details can keep one from dreaming.
Our sight can be compromised
by the minutiae. At least this is true
for me, all too often.
How can it be before I became
a grown up and life’s beginning that all those fairies and magic things that I
so fervently believed in have gone missing? Or have I gone to sleep?
Twice in a weeks time I have
encountered changelings.
“A Changeling is
a creature found in folklore and folk religion. It is typically described as
being the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has
been secretly left in the place of a human child.” (Google
definition)
If these two randomly encountered girls, who because of their
natures beg to referred to as lasses, were not changelings, then
they were
earth angels charged with the work of bringing enchantment. And enchant me they
did.
They did not come to me in a forest or under a full moon but
in
the most ordinary of circumstances.
The first for the sake of the story, I shall christen her
Fiona. I encountered her in a historic barn at a local park. Though there
are
many alternative displays, every time I go to this park, like a migrating bird.
I immediately go to the barn, where I immediately
go to the stall with the
cows.
I love cows, the brown of their eyes, the placid sound of
their moo and their bells. I love them so that whenever I see them I tell them
right out loud how I love them so and then I commence to moo to them.
So I am there, mooing and this 11 year old sprite of a girl
with a mane of curls seems to manifest from nowhere and begins mooing. She is
mooing with enviably great skill.
I inquire about her mooing skill. It seems her mooing is one
of her many skilled repertoires of animal sounds. She proceeds to give me an improvisational concert
of geese, cats etc. resonated in the amber hues light of the barn.
Though delighted by this spontaneous performance, the mom,
teacher Border collie of me looked around to ascertain “Who were her grownups?”
I looked about to see if any family
groups were attaching themselves to this child who had begun to tell me of her
dreams of being an actor.
No one seemed to claim her, so I inquired where is your
family? Seeming not to hear she made a lovely pigeon sound she turned and
headed to the other end of the barn her longs curls bouncing a farewell.
I watched like a sentry for her to find her grownups. She is
a child alone in a very public place, vulnerable. She skips away towards the
summer light of the barn door and disappears in the lights rays.
I disappear to some state of wonderment, just glad to have
been joined in the mooing and the pondering the brief foray into the mystical
realm…
But she and the memory fade like an apparition and I return
to life and all the ceaseless noise of my mind.
I never knew what a clamorous place my mind really was until
I began to mediate. What I never noticed that there were particular frequencies
that my thoughts alighted on over and over. On this week of the fairy child,
money was the fear that would not shut up in my head. Money, weight, other people,
my mind had the making of a crack den where a drift of fear or the negative
could get me smoking and my mind would become like a corrupt radio with only
one frequency.
Due to effort and age, I am at the “enough already” chapter
of life. By the 6th decade, I know I will not end up on the dole,
that things have always worked out and have had enough glimmers of serenity
that I can at least identify fear or noise when I hear it. One of my life
mottos is if I can name the beast I can slay it.
My financial fear though had been triggered by a huge
“elective” expense and a few surprises. Of course just like I did as a kid,
when I was certain my brothers would steal my sweets so I ate them all in one
sitting, I had a habit as an adult when looking at lean times, I would
compulsively fill the larder. So knowing this big expense was coming, and that
I would need to tighten the proverbial belt, I bought a few pretties. Perhaps a
few too many…
Another of my favorite adages is the lyric from The Eagles Hotel California, … “we are all
prisoners of our own design.”
I tell you all this to set the stage for the second encounter
with a changeling.
Walks for me are medicinal; they help put me in my right
mind.
Since I was out of my mind worrying about money, I needed
this walk. In my chattering head I tried tempering the fear by repeating
positive affirmations, “ I am abundantly
blessed.” Additionally, I had vowed not to spend any money unless absolutely
necessary. All this sound very ordinary, except it was like a skirmish between
light and dark, and for me a very redundant one. I’d been troubling about money
since I was a kid and we were the charity, food stamps family. (Which makes me speculate whether fear is
born or bred?)
So I am strolling through my neighborhood with this mental
volleyball game going on, when I am charged by a changeling of joy. A mop top
of curls 8-year-old girl bounces towards me, chanting, “today is your lucky
day.” (I immediately count my the day lucky to have been distracted by the
reverie in my head.) “ I have a special treasure for you,” she chants.
I assume that this dollop of joy girl is a direct
manifestation of thought. I had been affirming prosperity and now she has
chosen me, of the many pedestrians out for a walk to gift with the treasure,
She hands me a My Little Pony chalkboard, and almost singing it, says "here is your surprise."
Captured again by a changeling, I inquire her name. This one
chooses to tell me. “Alley Cat” she purrs and proceeds to sing me
a song. Right
there in the middle of a very ordinary street on an ordinary I am given a surprise gift
by the ever so surprising Alley Cat.
She turns and prances away to the melody and I am left to
ponder…. the magical and mystical and perhaps that is more ordinary than I
remember. Perhaps these two muses have come to alert me, awaken me to that
which I have forgotten.
