How it started

It was 6 years ago. We were on our way to pick up our new dog. She was waiting for us in Lincoln Nebraska. She was and is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Why she needs four names I don't know, but we just call her Zoe.

Anyway we were on our way to pick her up from the breeder (all the good Cavalier breeders seem to be 500 miles from here. Our other Cavalier hails from Montana). It was about the middle of Nebraska when my daughter found a faerie at a truck stop.

My daughter was looking for a "trinket" to remind her of Nebraska. I told her she could buy something if it was just a few bucks. When she pointed out the faerie I tried to tell her how it really wasn't the kind of thing we were looking for. It should be more like a key chain or a shot glass or an ash tray (yes, I realize how ridiculous that is now - she was eight, of course she was looking at faerie rather than a shot glass - but that's what people are suppose to get when traveling aren't they?) But the more I looked at the little faerie, the more I thought that 20 bucks was really not that much to spend and besides she was kind of cute and every little girl should have a faerie....

Well, I succeeded in convincing myself but the more I look back I wonder if I even had a chance at saying no. I have stopped collecting shot glasses, ash trays and key chains and have a rather impressive collection of faeries. My wife puts up with them all over the house. They move around the rooms of the house having discussions, causing mischief, watching, waiting, thinking... They occupy every nook and cranny and sometimes we go out and buy new nooks and crannies just so we have room for more faeries.

Occasionally I struggle with the fact that most people don't consider faerie collecting to be a very manly past time. But me getting bitten by the faerie bug really isn't all that surprising when I think about it. Faeries play with time and space and are cute but not controllable. They are the stuff of imagination and muse. My goal now is to reach into time and space and either pull out a faerie or put one there - it matters not which.

Her name is Lilinih (Le-lee'-nah). She is three times on the gate - twice on the arbor and once on the gate. She is holding a butterfly (an iron butterfly come to think of it). The butterfly is her muse. She and her friends are my muse.