Cinderella and the Fairy Crocodile, part 1 Cinderella and the Fairy Crocodile, part 2 It was the first stroke of midnight. The fairy crocodile waited in the road outside the palace garden. Cinderella was not there, and the fairy crocodile had thought of no conveyance to take her home. At the second stroke, nothing had…
Cinderella and the Fairy Crocodile, part 1 An instant after the wildebeest rushed out of the courtyard, one of the starry points of the upper heaven pierced through the clouds. It grew brighter and larger and nearer, till out of its brightness stepped a glowing lady with gold hair and a filmy dress. “Where is…
Sometime that morning, the fairy crocodile had wandered into a storm. She was not large. She was about as big as a squirrel, and sometimes she slept all night in a bird’s nest. So she was easily swept along, and had been blown right out to sea. Fortunately, she still had her magic wand with…
Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former husband, two daughters of her own humor, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness…
Someone was coming for dinner. My sister and I always made biscuits: three parts self rising flour to one part shortening; add milk and kneading. And we would set the table with special dishes. Five children, extremely tight budgets, a move overseas and back – my mom preferred useful presents for her birthday or Christmas;…
When we were training for foster care, we were asked to list our five most sustaining relationships, comforts, or interests. Then the trainer called out numbers, and we had to cross off things. I had to cross off my husband, my home, my books. The trainer called out another number. I crossed off my church…
A very sensible story full of very, very, very, very, very good advice Always carry crumbs when you are wandering in the woods beside the waters – just in case you need to mark a trail, like in a fairy tale. And always have a piece of tape in case a butterfly breaks off its…
A little while ago, one of our church’s more exuberantly squirmy members asked me with a hesitance unlike himself – suggestive of the very deepest longings of his interior soul – if at the midweek kid’s class, we could make a city. Maybe he is already developing a tendency to become an architect; but there…
Some people are called to do great things, like compose Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, or be the mother of the man who wrote Moby Dick, or invent the electric tea kettle. My calling is less beneficial to the human race, but we don’t get to choose. In the nature of the case, a calling seeks us out…
Fairy tales are a mirror of reality. The mirror in a novel shows us what is hidden in our own heart. The mirror in a fairy catches something hidden, too. If you squint over a good fairy tale, you can almost see it: what is lurking in our own, and all of history. That sudden…
Dear Reader, A friend sent me this (linked) fairy name chart. It occurred to me that what the world really needs right now is a similar chart to figure out our troll names. And here it is, thanks to the indisputably Odius qualities of myself and Carrie L– er, Slackthew…
One of my nieces used to cup her hands over the enchanting pictures in her storybooks, and carry them invisibly in a finger-cradle to her mother. At that time, my sister-in-law washed dishes by ones and twos in a portable tub, hung laundry to dry, and revolved a simple routine of feeding, delighting, neatening and…
