Faeries and Hornets and the Forest

copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, All rights reserved

Faeries have always seemed a little "too out there" for me to believe in.  Poor Tinker Bell, her light fades as I write!  Not that I haven't wanted to believe.  But I'm not sure as to what I am believing in?  Where do they fit in the theological stuff that fills my life with it's exploration, feeding the scholar and the mystic simultaneously.  I'm not sure I ever believed in faeries.  As a kid that make believe world was not the kind I wandered within.  My make believe world was fairly morbid.  Stories were grim.  Ghosts and murdered children and mysteries on horse ranches.  There wasn't a lot of fun and frolic and the light heartedness that makes room for faeries.  It feels as though I missed out on something important, and that perhaps it would be a good time to revisit that place.  But I think when you miss that as a child, it is very difficult to ever find that space inside of yourself.
And you kind of look with skepticism at people who do seem to believe in that stuff.  Like, what's that about?  Seems childlike at best and childish at the worst, but secretly I wish I could believe.  I never much liked being a child.  There was just a little more control when you got to sit at the adult table to eat, or play cards with the adults after dinner.  Dolls and faeries and make believe just didn't compete with riding my bike all over town, fast as could be, or roller skating, or swimming or riding horses on the farm, or feeding the goats, or climbing haystacks.  I don't know, maybe it's having grown up on the prairies that make for a more realistic and practical view of the world. 

copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, All rights reserved

Then there is this photo over to the left.  A hornets' nest.  It makes me nervous just looking at it.  A not so nice resident of the forest, but a very real one.  That is something with which I am familiar, and the kind of thing I know to avoid.  It is interesting that faeries make me every bit as uncomfortable as a hornet's nest, isn't it? 

I guess it's just that whether you're treking through faerie forests or the solid, down to earth kind, there are always dangers.  Things to fear.  Things to understand and to treat with respect.  And things to give a wide berth.

People that believe in faeries don't frighten me.  They're just a bit eccentric, and in my world that's just fine.  But when your theology sits on the left, there always seem to be hornet's nests.  You can be just walking down the path and not even hear the buzzing, when you're on top of a nest and you didn't realize you were, and suddenly all those angry hornets are after you.  I've gotten stung enough to try and avoid confrontation with those formidable insects.

These days, I guess I'd rather just stay far away from those whose theology makes so little room for loving one's neighbor.  These days I prefer to let the hornets live their lives without my interference, or even my observation.  I try to keep my eyes open for trouble spots, so we can live in the same vicinity in peace.

Maybe that's why I love water so much.  Hornets don't.  I just want to hang out where there's as little trouble as possible.

More Ithaca Waterfalls   copyright 2011, C. Cerdwyn, All rights reserved.

And if I see a faerie, or even a whisper that might be, I'll try not to ignore it.  Impossibility,  the Implausible, the miraculous and the joyful...well, those things I am well familiar with, and the faeries seem to be well acquainted with them as well.  So I suspect we'll be friends.  Though it's still like pulling teeth to write about them!