erin

tools to build the stars

I’ve used the same set of tools as my father ever since I was little, even though they’re heavy and sharp.

They don’t feel as heavy now, but they’re still sharp.

They were my grandmother’s tools, and her mother’s and grandmother’s before that. After they were my grandmother’s they became my father’s, because she didn’t have a daughter and some people said she should take an apprentice instead but she taught my father because she thought it was silly to only teach girls. Now my father has me, but I think he would have taught me even if I’d been a boy because he tended to agree with grandma about most things except how long to keep his hair.

He lets me try different tools to see which ones work better for me. He says the ones that work best for him might not fit my hands the same way and ones that are perfect for me may be nearly useless for him, though I haven’t found any that work perfectly for me yet.

He calls this trial and error. I call them mistakes, but he says mistakes are how we learn.

That’s why he leaves the not-quite-right stars around the workshop, as reminders, but I think he also does it because they sparkle just as brightly as the proper ones.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

wisdom for the new year

Only three people per year get to consult the frog, so they have to hold a lottery. People used to try to line up outside his fence before the end of the year but once they started camping out earlier and earlier the city council decided to have a lottery instead.

Everyone submits their name and the council choses three at random and on the last day of the year those lucky three people have their private session with the frog, one at a time in reverse alphabetical order.

I used to get so excited about the choosing of the names, crossing all my crossables that maybe this year would be my chance for frog-bestowed wisdom. But you can only hold out hope with such small odds for so long, and eventually I only put my name in the lottery out of habit.

This year my name was picked.

A reporter came to ask how I felt (“surprised”) and someone else took my photograph and I had to sign non-disclosure forms promising never to reveal what wisdom the frog chose for me and me alone.

I was last, reverse-alphabetically, so I had to wait most of the afternoon, until the sun was preparing for the final sunset of the year, casting long shadows over the frog’s courtyard.

The guards left me alone and the frog stared at me in silence for a very long time, frowning.

Then he told me to stop waiting for permission to be happy.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.