flax-golden

a not-quite-midnight picnic

We decide to have a midnight picnic with the moon but we leave early just after the sun goes to sleep so there will be enough light to see by to get there.

We bring strawberries and honey and blue cheese and a bottle of red wine but we pack teacups instead of wine glasses because they are easier to carry and slightly more difficult to break.

We tiptoe under the deep pink sky as not to wake the sun.

We find a good spot to place our blanket and we put stones on the corners to keep the wind from stealing it away and we can only find three good stones but a passing rabbit says he will sit on the fourth corner to keep it in place for us for the duration of our nighttime picnic if he may have a strawberry and a sip of wine. We declare this a splendid exchange and the rabbit snuggles into the stoneless blanket corner.

The sky turns indigo and mauve and grey and the clouds dance and the moon peeks out at us and we raise our wine-filled teacups to it in greeting.

We have forgotten to pack napkins so our fingers get honey-sticky but we do not mind.

The rabbit tells us stories about the bees who live on the North Star and make honey that is snow-white and sparkling, and we all agree that one can never have enough honey or too many bees.

After we eat the last berries and nibble the last morsels of cheese and lick the last of the honey from our fingers and paws we make wishes on the half-moon that they might come half-true.

Then we fold up our blanket and pack our wine-stained teacups away and bid our new rabbit friend sweet dreams and say goodnight to the world.

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

an entreaty before departure

It is almost time to go.

Someday is, in fact, today.

Time for departures and changes and brave new worlds.

New sights and new sounds, new dreams and new shoes.

Write yourself a note, to remember who you are.

(It’s an easier thing to forget than you’d imagine.)

Put your tray table in whatever position suits your fancy.

Make sure you know where your towel is.

Hold your breath, make a wish, and off you go.

In search of elusive delights.

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

bargaining with space and time

They make promises to themselves and to the universe and in that moment they believe they got the better of the bargain, they believe that everything is forever and infinite.

Later, much later, they will realize their mistake.

Nothing lasts forever.

Promises regarding space and time disintegrate like paper in the rain.

When they finally feel their space and time slipping through their fingers they stop winding their watches and they unplug their clocks. As though the disruption of electricity could halt time forever at six minutes past eleven.

They fret over the things they had meant to do instead of moving forward.

They mourn what’s been lost instead of celebrating what’s still to come.

Instead of reveling in all that is available to them.

And space and time sigh and laugh and continue dancing into the future.

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

tiny helpful birds

The Helpful Birds are small and black
But some of them wear splashes of color
And all of them are somewhat fluffy.

Often only one of them will show up
But they will be there when you need them.

If you have a lock in need of picking or a lost item stuck on a high branch
Or if you simply feel the need to listen to a little song
They will be happy to help you or to sing for you.

And if you are lost at sea
They will help you build your boat.

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

the wish granters

The faeries got tired of constantly being asked to grant wishes while they were busy with other things like practicing their tiny violins and writing novellas and drinking their faerie wine so they created a wish submission system, somewhat similar to a post office box system, but, you know, for wishing.

You write down your wish in 250 words or less and put it in an envelope (standard, not business sized) and you tape a flower to it (it doesn’t matter what kind). Then you put your wish in one of the numbered boxes to submit it to the faeries and they will answer it or they won’t.

Wishers debate about the system, they all have their theories. They suppose that wishes submitted to box number four always come true, or ones placed in box number one have a higher chance of being granted because fewer wishers put their wish in the first box.

(Some say thirteen is unlucky and others say the opposite and neither is correct.)

Or that faeries don’t care for dandelions, and they’re not a proper flower anyway.

(Untrue, faeries love dandelions, particularly in their puffy stage.)

Once in awhile someone will suggest that all the wishes get piled together regardless of which numbered box they go into and the faeries ignore them all, but that’s not true either.

The wishes go into numbered piles that the faeries ignore, until one of them is bored and pulls a wish at random to grant, just to keep things interesting.

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