You want to know what it’s really like to work with faeries? I’ll tell you.
It’s not always easy…
This morning, I felt compelled to whip out my tarot deck for my online friends. I have two decks; one I use for others, and one I only use for my own personal readings. I looked in the last place that I had left my deck for others . . . and it was gone.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Back in 2010 I lost this deck. I couldn’t find it anywhere, and I looked high and low. I turned out cupboards and drawers, I riffled through papers, I emptied my closet. No cards. I gave up looking. And then, after I had a really invasive surgery and was healing at my parents’ house, I found them. In a box in the room I used to sleep in.
Not all lost things are “lost”.
I lose things all the time. Sometimes it’s my keys, hidden in strange places (how did they get under the couch cushions?!), sometimes it’s jewelry. I lost one of my favorite cat earring charms while out one day and never found it, even though I went back to the gas station and diner to look for it. I used to have a cat ring for my left hand index finger. I lost it after I took it off for dinner prep one day. Part of me worries that it fell into the trash, but another, bigger part is pretty sure it’s being borrowed by the faeries.
I’ve lost one of my herkimer diamonds; I thought I had put it in one of my fairy gardens, but it’s gone, borrowed by my fae friends. They like to borrow things, especially things that you have a lot of emotional investment in. Sometimes they just like to move things, and laugh as you run around in a tizzy looking for them.
“Silly mortal, you’re focusing on the wrong thing!”
Sometimes, if I say a quick prayer to St. Anthony, I can find my missing object in the last place I expect to find it (keys under papers I haven’t touched in weeks, for example). Sometimes it doesn’t really work.
Faeries like to borrow your most important items.
This morning was no exception. I distinctly remember leaving my cards in my desk drawer. Since they were not there, I figured, Hmm, maybe I left them in a different drawer? So I went looking. I have looked in every drawer in this apartment; I have looked inside the clutter closet, in every possible spot I think they might be. I can actually feel my fae friends laughing, giggling, falling over themselves at their clever trick.
What can I do? I could get angry. “Dammit,” I could say, “give them back.” I could yell at them and berate them for taking my things. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever pissed a faery off before, but it’s not really a good idea. (That’s the understatement of the year.) So even if I feel a little miffed, I tend not to get too angry. Instead, I have to laugh. It’s all in good fun. They wouldn’t be picking on me and taking my things if they didn’t like me. “Oh c’mon,” I say. “Where did you hide it?” But they just laugh, and eventually that’s all I can do too.
Honestly, that’s what it boils down to. I love having them around because my world is so full of laughter. They lend a brightness to my mundane life. They might take things from me, but they also help me find things. I’ve found some of the coolest bird feathers, stones, and leaves, I’ve found pennies and quarters and two dollar bills, I’ve found the cheese I overlooked at the supermarket because of them. I don’t really mind when they move or borrow my things, because I know they’ll turn up eventually. And in the meantime, we get a laugh out of it.
