Tending Fairy Houses

Lucy and her best friend, Bella, began building fairy houses in the garden last summer. They constructed furniture from twigs, leaves and rocks. They let water pool in plastic containers for drinking and bathing. They left berries and nuts for the fairies to eat. And they decorated their fairy houses with flowers (and blooming weeds) snipped from all around the yard. As far as I can tell, fairies never had it so good.


For Christmas this year, Lucy received a fairy door from a dear friend. It’s a hand-carved, wooden door set in a door frame that actually opens and closes. She was so thrilled to receive this lovely gift that she immediately placed it in her fairy house, even though it was far too cold for fairies.  When the weather started getting warmer recently, Lucy noticed the fairy door standing open one day and surmised that the fairies had returned for the season. 


Consequently, tending the fairy house has begun in earnest - a lovely reminder that spring has sprung.  Lucy checks frequently for evidence that the fairies have been there, makes sure they have enough water and fairy food and rights furniture when it’s been knocked over by a squirrel (or older brother playing kickball). As anyone who knows Lucy would expect she tends to the needs of the fairies in our yard with patience, kindness and love.



Recently I was cleaning up the yard – putting away yard toys, bringing in the inside toys that had been left out and picking up wrappers from granola bars and fruit snacks that didn’t quite make it into the trash can. I ran across a magenta, colored pencil and snatched it up to carry inside, but stopped, realizing it was next to Lucy’s fairy house. Still holding the pencil, I knelt down and carefully examined the ground where I had found it. I discovered several pieces of rolled-up bark from a Madrona tree 15 feet away. There was no reason for such a concentration of the bark in that particular spot in the garden, so I carefully unrolled one of the pieces. There, on the bark, was a note written with that magenta, colored pencil. “I hope you like your house.” I smiled to myself and checked the other pieces. “My name is Lucy. What’s yours?” “How old are you?” “Is it fun to be a fairy?” Lucy walked over while I was doing this and pointed to the colored pencil I still held in my hand. “That’s so the fairies can write me back. Can we leave it there?”



I thought about Lucy’s beautiful, free and open spirit, and her firm belief in these tiny, beautiful and magical creatures. Then I thought about my own heart, my own soul and my own firmly held beliefs. And I resolved then and there to be as much like Lucy as this world will allow any responsible, conscientious, functioning adult to be. Because even though this world can be harsh, cold and lonely at times, it is also beautiful, free and welcoming… but only if we believe it’s so.



Can we leave the pencil there? Of course we can, Lucy.  I can't wait to see if the fairies write back.