The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

” Arial, come and look.” I was working at the computer when an e-mail message came in from a good friend, Katherine Bourgeois. Kat and I met on a social site for business people and were immediately friends. I was told by Queen Litha that faerie people find each other, and I am finding out that  she was right, people from all over are writing to me about some faerie sighting or another.

“Remember Kat? She introduced us to Patricia Saxton.” Arial was all smile’s as she made herself comfortable on my shoulder. “Yes, I do remember, have you received new tidings from her? (Fairy’s tend to talk “old world”).

“I have, would you like to see?” Arial jumped up and swirled about in a fast, rather complicated series of aerial maneuvers. She stopped suddenly and drew a tiny silver flute from  her belt. It wasn’t long after the sweet, melodic notes had faded away that the room exploded into hundreds of fall faeries, all struggling to look at the monitor. I had faeries sitting on my head and slipping off both shoulders, one even tried to perch on the tip of my nose. “Um…excuse me!” I carefully removed the offending faerie by lifting her up by the wings and setting her down on the desk, where remarkably, there wasn’t one other faerie. “Thanks Arial, just what we needed, a faerie fan club.”

The room vibrated with excitement. Arial darted back and forth, “Hurry, hurry hurry!” A couple of  things I have noticed about my faerie friends, they don’t have much patience, and they love a good story (that’s probably why Arial is so insistent that I write things down). “All right, calm down! I’m opening it, look, here it comes. She sent pictures too!”

Kat wrote:

Tami, on a recent trip blueberry picking in a beautiful valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, my granddaughter Chloe and I discovered several beautiful faerie hideaways.  These lovely little spots also sparked a little faerie haiku.

Arial wrinkled her nose as she tip-toed around the keyboard. “What is “haiku?” She ask this as if it were something to avoid stepping in.

I had to laugh at the expression on her face. “Haiku is a form of non-rhyming, Zen-like poetry that originated in Japan. It has a formal structure limited to seventeen syllables, five in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line. Would you like me to read them to you?” All the faeries clapped and cheered so I began:

Deep in the valley

I thought I saw a glimmer

Of faerie luster.

Twinkling by the stream

Sparkling, blinking, and shining

Faeries as flashlights

******

Faerie, tucked in for

The night, did you hide your light

Under the covers?

******

Silly Faerie, why

Do you think I cannot see

You blinking at me?

******

Do faeries smile and

Stop to talk a while and be

Friends like you and me?

******

Is there faerie time?

Or can their days be measured

In winks of an eye?

******

When faeries get mad

Do they blink slowly and point

A mean wing at you?

There was a soft collective sigh when I stopped reading. Fairy eyes are, for the most part, large and dewy, but now I noticed that there were more than a few misty eyes in the group. I smiled. “Judging by everyone’s response I take it that you like Kat’s Haiku?” The faeries were sitting in groups of two and three hugging each other and humming softly.

Arial came up close to my ear and whispered “We must send Kat a missive this instant thanking her for her charming words and her captivating still life!”

The fall faeries drifted off, one by one, still caught in the magic of Katherine’s words.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

One of the nicest things about having an up close and personal relationship with my faerie friends is meeting others who travel the same magical path. The Fae it seems, just naturally attract others who share the same love of these ethereal winged creatures. My friends often tell me that they passed my house in the predawn mist and saw faeries dancing on my front lawn, or send a quick e-mail to ask me how to deal with a particularly moody pixie that keeps up ending all of their flower pots. As delightful as these beings from the realm can be, they do have a mischievous side.

Just recently, a good friend of mine introduced me to John Probst. John has just finished a book that Linda Biggs illustrated titled “Her Rainbow World”. You can read  the article about them here. Linda’s love of fantasy art comes through in her use of bright colors. It’s this use of colors that sets her apart from other faerie artists. Arial tells me that her friends love the colors (they remind them of the flowers, and some of the pictures even resemble their friends). John has a website where you can see a few of the illustrations from their book. I am still waiting for my copy…Marilyn?

This morning, as I was having my coffee, Arial was sitting on my shoulder (her usual place) and braiding the ends of my hair. I have never understood why she does this, I have just learned to accept the ways of the Fae and don’t ask.  Anyway, we are just sitting on the chaise lounge enjoying the summer morning and all of a sudden, she flips her wings once and shoots for the door squeaking  “Come, you must go to your computer machine.”

Like I said, I don’t even ask why. Faeries have an intuition that surpasses anything I have known. “Hold on Arial, I have to get the computer started.” I wasn’t really ready to start the day, but she was so insistent. After I had the computer running, I looked over at her and said “Okay, what am I looking for?” She smiled at me as she perched lightly on the edge of the monitor.

“The letters, look at your letters.” Arial is trying to understand the computer, but she has a hard time with the buzz words. “Do you mean my e-mail?”  Her smile broadened. “E-mail, that’s right, look at your e-mail. You will like it.” I couldn’t get my e-mail opened fast enough. Arial kept buzzing around my head. “Arial, please settle down, your flitting about is very distracting.”

Once I got the e-mail opened I saw at once what she had wanted me to see. Kat, a friend on LinkedIn, had sent me a note to introduce me to Patricia Saxton. Patricia has written a book entitled “A Book of Fairies”. I am looking forward to talking with Patricia more about the subject of faeries…wait a minute,  Arial is trying to get my attention. “Whats that? Arial reminded me that you can find Patricia’s book in her boutique.

I would encourage you to visit these sites and show your support of these writers and artists. To quote Arial, “Mortals who love faeries make the best friends!”