Returning to my childhood
I spend most of my childhood outside, playing in the fields, more at home amongst the trees and the long grass. I created whole worlds out there, where my best friends were the cows and the fairies. I was obsessed with fairy rings and found plenty of them, surrounding my home in the middle of Ireland. In the countryside my imagination could run wild and so could I.
Growing up in Ireland, I heard so many stories about the fairies or Siog. I also knew where to find them. One of the most popular places, was a fairy ring, a protected place, where flowers or trees grew in a circle. We all knew that we must never touch those trees or flowers, for they belonged to the fairy folk and to do so, would bring bad luck upon you and your family.
Where the Hawthorn trees grow are also magical places,as these are often the gateway into the fairy kingdom. How lucky was I to have hawthorn trees growing around my home and a fairy ring in the field behind. This made it easy for me to connect with the Siog and welcome them into my life.
I spend my days visiting these magical places, bringing the fairies gifts of flowers and Singing songs to them. I truly believed that I caught glimpses of them flying above me and at night time, they would come and watch over me as I slept, even taking me to their magical land, where I would dream of such encounters.
I made daisy chains and decorated the hawthorn trees. I knew that the Siog were friends with the animals and when I spend time amongst the cows that lived in the neighboring land, I felt their presence around me. As a young child, nature was were I felt most at home. I listened to the whispers that were carried in the wind and often caught the sound of music in the distance, convincing myself that it was the sound of the fairies celebrating.
This week the ladies of hive community want to know.....
What were your favorite games (or toys) as a child. Tell us about them! Do you still play any of them now?
My favorite games were always outside, come rain or come shine that is where you would find me. Sometimes I had a friend accompany me and we would sit in the center of the fairy ring and share our secrets and tell our stories, knowing that the fairies would hear them all. But more often than not I went alone, but never once did I feel lonely.
My girls have asked me whether or not fairies are real,my answer is always, that as I child I could see them, but now I no longer see them in that same way.
Instead, I feel their presence in nature itself. The spirit of the trees and the flowers. We see things a lot more clearly when we are children. As we grow older our lives become more complicated, so we lose that clear vision. But it is still there and often at night time, when I open my heart up to my surroundings, I hear their music in the distance, calling out to me once more.
