Once upon a time there was a fairy and her name was Flo. Flo was a member of a large and luminous family of fairies. Her father was a shoemaker and her mother an angel. Flo is tiny in stature only 8 inches tall in fact with little wings of an iridescent opal colour. They reflect many beautiful colours like silver and gold, blue and green, peach and pink, white and orange and many more too numerous and mysterious to describe. Flo’s large eyes are most often a bright sky blue and can change depending how she’s feeling and where she is. She wears a beautiful translucent wispy dress that flows easily around her.
When you meet Flo you immediately notice the tiny golden shining bell she wears around her neck. It was given to her by her mother. Although the bell is small, when it rings you can hear the beautiful sound of angels singing. Her mother explained to Flo that the bell has special powers that can only be activated by Flo. It can help take her to wondrous places to experience interesting adventures. These adventures will help Flo to expand her understanding of her world and herself. Flo has learned that each time she hears her bell ringing she knows she is able to fly to a new adventure if she wishes.
This day Flo heard the bell and became excited about what she was to discover. This created an even brighter glow of her body as her little wings started to unfold and gently flap. She could feel herself starting to lift off and hover above the Earth. She knew all she needed to do was to give the command to go, if she wanted to. So when she was ready she said GO and off she went, a small sparkly light gliding through the air.
Over the trees and rivers she went and higher still over the mountains. She saw below a beautiful forest and a carpet of flowers of all colours blanketing the forest floor. “Oh my how beautiful!” she said. “I think I will stop here and look around.” All she needed to say was DOWN and she found herself gently descending to the forest floor in the middle of the flower carpet. How soft and beautiful they felt as she touched down. And the smell of them was divine! Not only that, all of them started to greet her in a chorus of “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome” that rang in her ears, such a beautiful sound! “We are so happy you have come for a visit” they said.”We are the greeters at the doorway to the Kingdom of Imagination and Dreams. Please come in and create whatever you desire.”
Flo was so excited and happy. Her mother had told her of this place. Her bedtime stories she told had been about her visits here. So now Flo was to have her own experiences. Flo began to walk forward into the forest. It smelt wonderful – the pine, the leaves, the mushrooms. All were bowing to her as if to say “Hello”. I wonder if they can talk she thought. “Of course we can!” said a loud deep voice that seemed to be coming from the large pine tree. “What can we do for you today?” Flo stammered “I don’t know. I’m, I’m surprised to hear that you can talk and to know that you could do things.”
“Well, ask me a question” said the Pine.
Flo was thinking this is crazy, not only am I talking to a pine tree but its asking me to ask it a question. Then she remembered that the flowers at the doorway to this place said it was the Kingdom of Imagination and Dreams. Ok I get it now. Whatever I can dream or imagine could be shown to me I guess. Well I’ll give it a try and play along with this pine tree. It does seem friendly. “Ok pine tree, said Flo, how old are you?” The pine responded “I am 50 years old.”
“Do you have a family here” asked Flo. The Pine chuckled “look around you little fairy. This Pine beside me is my grandfather and he is 100 years old.” The Grandfather Pine bowed slightly and said “Good Day” in an even deeper voice than his grandson. “And those little Pines over there are my children of various ages as you can see”. Flo said in wonder “Wow, you must like it here since so many of your family are here.”
“Oh yes” said the Pine “the conditions here suit us very well. The air is clean and the soil rich.
We can feed each other for a thriving environment.
“And we are so grateful that they are here” piped up a small voice behind Flo. She turned around to see where the little voice was coming from. All she saw was a spotted brown mushroom. I can only see a mushroom, she thought. Mushrooms can’t speak can they? She knelt down beside the mushroom and put her ear close to it. Nothing, silence. Hmm. She sat and sat and waited to hear something but still nothing. So she got up and said out loud “I must be mistaken but I’ll give it one more try”. So she said “mushroom, if you can speak, please speak up now.”
“Yes I can speak to you” said the mushroom, but only if you ask me to out loud.”
“Oh, I didn’t understand that I needed to speak out loud. I didn’t do that with the Pine.”
“Right, we are all different” said the mushroom.
– to be continued –