A faerie has appeared in the garden at Resthaven, where my mother passed away earlier this year. It takes its place among other memorials, a perpetual reminder of my late mother’s imagination and her faithful journey towards the Tree of Life.
As the eldest of three, I scoffed when my mother alluded to “faeries at the bottom of the garden.” Was she simply passing on generational folklore from the old country? Was it a subtle control technique that kept us kids mystified? Was it just some fun, sharing a little magic from her childhood?
The notion grew when grandchildren came along. In her later years, she moved to a rented senior’s unit. In a corner of her backyard garden, Mother created a “faerie circle” with miniature paving stones. She repurposed a clay letterbox as a faerie cottage. Visitors, tiny and grown, were enthralled when they called by. The garden prompted the telling of imaginative stories and stimulated creativity.
The folklore surrounding faeries goes back to Celtic times, when such creatures were feared more than admired. They were fickle, powerful beings, otherworldly, who had the power to bless and curse at whim. They were found in wild and untamed forests and bleak, uncultivated wastelands.
The romanticism of Victorian times clothed them in a more delicate and whimsical respectability. The neatly curated garden became symbolic of controlled nature and innocence. Adding faeries was a way of suggesting hidden magic just beneath the surface.
Deep down, does this hint at a primordial nostalgia for a paradise lost? Does it feed an innate wish to return to Eden, a place of wonder and innocence?
The Christian story addresses such hunger by inviting engagement with Christ. It calls for participation in the building of Shalom, the realm of God where all finds its completion. The Tree of Life (Revelation 22:1-9) becomes accessible in the great restoration of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Mother was able to integrate both the magic of her imagination and the steady conviction of her Christian faith. I am sure she has passed this on to her offspring!
Wondering Pilgrim 