Fairies, Feys, and Sprites

    She gave him a look of the most intense admiration, and he thought it was because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies. Wendy had lived such a home life that to know fairies struck her as quite delightful. She poured out questions abou them, to his suprise, for they were rather a nuisance to him, getting in his way and so on, and indeed he sometimes had to give them a hiding. Still, he liked them on the whole, and he told her about the beginnig of fairies.
    "You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
    Tedious talk this, but being a stay-at-home she liked it.
    "And so," he went on good-naturedly, "there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl."
    "Ought to be? Isn't there?"
    "No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead."
--Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

    Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.
    Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees.
    "Do you believe?" he cried.    Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate.
    She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasn't sure.
    "What do you think?" she asked Peter.
    "If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."
    Many clapped.
    Some didn't.
    A few little beasts hissed.
    The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to theirnurseries to see what on earth was happeing; but already Tink was saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to get at the ones who had hissed.
--Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

There is something truly delightful about fairies. I grew up as a kid who loved fantasy so I continue to have a soft spot for all things fantastical. I think that being read fairy tales and books like Lord of the Rings, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and A Wrinkle in Time as a kid is one of the reasons that I developed such an imagination. I am very thankful for that because I firmly believe that imagination is a gift. As I've gotten older, I have become more and more fascinated by Celtic lore and legend and fairies factor into that rather prominently. Really though, I just have a love of the fantastical. I have a particular love of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan (the Disney version that is). She has so much spunk and attitude. It's fantastic. I also am rather in love with the movie Finding Neverland; it's one of my top five favorite films. I love the moments in the movie with both of these quotes. The first quote I can never read without hearing the voice of the actress who plays Peter in play in the film (that is a confusing sentence...hopefully you get it). Plus the image of a baby's laugh shattering into a thousand pieces that all go skipping about is just so...magical. In the illustrated copy of Peter Pan that I have the quote is accompanied by a delightful picture of a laughing baby with fairies flying all around him. Actually all of the illustrations are wonderful. The version I have is illustrated by Michael Hague and one of the pictures is exactly what I think of every time I think of Tinkerbell. The second quote I have up top is from a part of Finding Neverland that never fails to make me tear up.

So, you are probably thinking to yourself that all this is fine and dandy but really seems to have nothing to do with a picture of a flower. Well, admittedly I am not sure I would have come to this connection on my own, but there is a reason I have paired these musings on fairy folk with this image. One of the first people I showed it to said that it looked like a fairy seat. As if the fairy lived inside the flower and just happened not to be home at that moment. Or maybe she was and fairies just don't show up on camera...