A Child's Belief

My little girl  at the beach / photo by Fyfe Photography

Today, I was watching my four year old son jumping off of the bottom few steps of our hallway stairs. He had a look of fierce concentration on his face, and when he landed, he would break out into a huge smile and then go back to the stairs and jump all over again.

I asked him what he was doing, and he answered me, "I'm Batman, and I'm flying!" Then he walked into the living room with me, moved his little stool over to me and said, "Watch!"  And he climbed up on the stool and leaped off it, lifting his legs high and throwing his hands in the air while he was airborne.

"See, Mommy! I flew!"

He beamed at me, proud if his accomplishment and I was reminded of my childhood self, doing the same thing. I had jumped off from my couch, over and over. And every time I lifted into the air, for those few precious seconds before I landed again, I felt like I was flying and I believed that, if I found the right way to jump, I could make myself remain in the air for longer and longer amounts of time. I truly believed, at that young age, that I could fly.

When do we grow too old to believe we can achieve the impossible? As children, we believed that we could do anything and that nothing was impossible, but as we grow older, we start to lose this belief. We lose our belief in the magic of possibilities and we lose our belief in our ability to do amazing things. It's those people who somehow manage to hang on to their childlike belief in the impossible who are able to achieve great things.

Children enjoy trying to achieve the impossible and believing that it can happen; they know that this trying and believing is all part of the fun. We should all hang on to that knowledge.

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When Did You Stop Believing?

Christmas is nearly here and children are expectantly awaiting their gifts from Santa Claus. Well, the children who still believe in Santa Claus are eagerly awaiting him.  The children who no longer believe are not as excited. They are still looking forward to Christmas, but some of the magic of it has already been lost to them.

I was only six years old when I lost the magic of Christmas. My older brother, a little before Christmas, showed me my mom's stash of Christmas presents; he'd found her hiding place. A little later, on Christmas morning, I found some of those same toys labeled "from Santa Claus" under the tree. I particularly remember one present I had seen amongst her hidden stash, a Princess Leia figurine, which I found in my Christmas stocking that Christmas morning.

Christmas was never the same for me after that. I still enjoyed Christmas, but it has lost its magic.

Now that I am grown and have children of my own, I have tried to keep the magic alive for them as long as possible. And in turn, their joy and excitement for Christmas has brought the magic back to Christmas for me.

I'm a believer again. I believe in Santa, but not as a rotund, jolly, white haired man who brings good little boys and girls presents, but instead as a symbol of the spirit of Christmas. Religion aside, the spirit of Christmas is about doing what we can to make others happy. Seeing the joy in my children's faces on Christmas morning, knowing that they still believe in the magic, is one of the best things in the world.

Watching people all over the world become more generous and willing to lend a helping hand to their neighbors is one of the amazing magical things about Christmas. Even in difficult economic times, people still become more giving during this time of year. And there is magic in that.

The magic of Christmas can be found in different places for different people. I choose to find the magic of Christmas in every child's joyous smile.

Where do you find the magic of Christmas?


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"Cobwebs" - flash fiction entry by Robert Fyfe for Spooktoberfest #spooktoberfest

  Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests wanted to find a way to celebrate the spookiest holiday of the year in style.

And so SPOOKTOBERFEST was born!

Requirements of the story:

Your Flash Fiction piece cannot be any longer than 300 words. You must use the MANDATORY 5 words listed below…
            cobweb(s)
            jack-o-lantern(s)
            ghost(s)
            cauldron(s)
            razor(s)
Post your Flash Fiction piece any day from Friday Oct 26^th thru Monday, Oct. 29^th.
Your flash fiction piece can be scary, comical, romantic, or whatever you choose, just be creative!

The winners will be posted on HALLOWEEN! That’s right, Wednesday, Oct. 31^st. Jackie and Dani will each choose a winner. That’s right – two winners!

PRIZES: A grab bag and candy. The winners will get the biggest bags we can find of their favorite candy along with some spookified items.

With this in mind, my husband, Robert Fyfe, decided to write a quick poem using all of the required words. Here is his entry:

Source: blog.farmgirlwrites.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Cobwebs

Caught in a cage brown with rust
Cobwebs old and full of dust
I sit and hope my life to keep
Not lost to a ghost to moan and weep
A cackle pierces the frosty air
As a wicked joke witches share
Razor sharp fingernails rip like a lion
And tossed into a cauldron made of iron
Plants that poison and lizards newt
Jack-o-lantern and mandrake root
A soup that holds one ingredient short
Actually not for I am caught


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What Daddy Doesn't Know Won't Hurt Him - contest entry by Robert Fyfe for the OUAT flash fiction contest

My husband doesn't blog often, but he wanted to enter the Once Upon a Time flash fiction contest. The word count limit is 350 words and the theme is Unexpected Fairytales. This is his submission to the contest.

What Daddy Doesn't Know Won't Hurt Him
by Robert Fyfe

Kerrie didn’t really understand why her father would react so badly but she was determined that she would warn the fairies that he was coming to destroy them. All her life she had seen them but until yesterday her father had told her that she was making things up and to stop these fantasies.

She wished she hadn’t lost her temper yesterday, hadn’t been so determined to prove him wrong, but after all it was his fault that her two sisters had gone; he had driven them away to goodness knows where. She had promised the fairies that she wouldn’t tell and they had shared their fairy dust with her. She had gotten so angry when her father had grabbed her, telling her that fantasies and fairytales were just make-believe and she should be real and forget them.

 She had become so upset and had pulled the little bag of dust from her pocket, had sprinkled a pinch of dust over her head and had whispered the magic word; she had risen off the floor about three feet as she had looked into her father’s eyes. So proud, so righteous, so in trouble.

He had grabbed her and threw her in her room telling her not to leave for any reason till he got back. She had heard him in the shed and she knew he was looking for a weapon against her friends.

He hadn’t realised though that the fairy dust was still powerful and she opened her window and flew out of the room and down to the bottom of the garden, his screams for her to return easily heard as he came from the shed and saw her disappear behind the hedge.

The fairies were there waiting, laughing, arms open wide. Kerrie told them to run, told them to hide. But they came to her, held on to her. “You just have to wish it away,” they told her. “Just think about where you would like to go and we will all go with you. After all it is what we did with your sisters.”

348 words

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Make Your Own Fairy Magic Gifts

The holiday season is upon us. This year, instead of giving something store-bought to the people you care about, why not make something special to bring a personal touch to your gift-giving? And while you are at it, why not make your gifts extra special by making them fairy magic gifts? Here are just a few ideas for some homemade fairy magic gifts of your own.





- Make small bottles of "fairy dust." You can buy tiny bottles at any craft store, including ones that can be made into keychains or necklaces. Fill the bottle with glitter. Any color of glitter will do. You can layer the "dust" or you can put the cork or lid on the bottle and shake it up. You can leave it like that or you can paint a flower or a butterfly on the outside of the bottle, either with acrylic paints or with glass paint pens. Print the poem that is written below and using a hole puncher leave hole in the bottom of the piece of paper you print the poem to and then add it to a ribbon and tie the ribbon around the outside of the neck of the bottle.

A special little gift
Made just for you,
Filled with sparkle
And fairy magic too!
Whenever you have something
That you want to do,
Just wish on this fairy dust
And your wish just might come true!

- Make a dream jar. Clean out a jar. Any jar from home will do. Paint glue all over the outside jar and then sprinkle different colors of glitter all over the outside. Once it dries, use acrylic paint to paint the words "Dream Jar" onto it. While the words dry, start typing up different "dreams." Each "dream" should be something happy, a remembered fun time with the person you are making the jar for, thoughts you have that are flattering to them, hopes you know they have, anything positive in their life and anything else you can think of that will lift their spirits when they read it. Make as many of these as you can, then cut them out and put them inside the dream jar. Tie a pretty ribbon aorund the neck of the jar. Whomever you give it to can pull a happy thought out of the jar whenever he or she is feeling down to help lift his or her mood.

- Make Fairy dust candle jars. Find some empty small baby food jars. Paint them with glitter. Fill each one with a scented candle and tie a pretty ribbon around the neck of the jar and your gift is complete.

Hope you enjoy making these simple gifts, and I hope the people you give them to enjoy them too!

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Fairy Stories By Isabella

My daughter Isabella started telling me stories about fairies when she was three years old and since then has continued to come up with more and more fairy stories. Her daddy has drawn some sketches to go with her stories and I created a blog where she could share her stories.

You can find her fairy stories on her blog The Tangle Fairies. She also has a Tangle Fairies Facebook page. Later this month, if my husband finishes the last three drawings, I am hoping to create a book for her with the stories and drawings. It will be made available for sale and all of the profits will go into a fund for her education.

Enjoy her stories n her blog and like her Facebook page to keep updated on new stories and on when the book is coming out.

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See The World Through Fairy Eyes

Sunlight and morning dew,
The glistening of magical wings.
Moonbeams and starlight,
All sorts of enchanting things.

See the world through fairy eyes,
With magic and sparkle and glee.
See the power in every butterfly
And the life in every tree.

See the puffed up toad,
Who leaps quickly out of sight.
See the soft little bunny,
Who looks back at you without fright.

See the jet black crow
Who flies towards you without fear,
See the magic in his wisdom,
As he flies far and near.

See the grace in a flower,
It's beauty for all to see,
Filling the air with perfume
And giving pollen for the bee.

Hear the voices that whisper
Through the sighing of the breeze.
Hear the magic talking
Through the rustling of the leaves.

See the world through fairy eyes,
And find the magic that is all around.
See the world through fairy eyes,
A world of magic to be found.



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