PERSONAL IMPACT OF FAERIES IN MY LIFE
Faeries have a very big impact on my life and world view. In this section i will go into detail about how my interest in faeries came to be and how it has shaped my life thus far.
Growing up with "the little people"
From Early childhood i have been raised with the believe in "the little people". Although the term "the little people" is actually a Native American term for faeries, in my family it is used to refer to what the Irish would call the house or Scottish rural fairies; or the welsh guardian faeries. This belief has run in my family for several generations, starting with my great grandmother who was half Native American. Although she denied that part of her heritage, she kept the belief in the "little people" which she then passed down to my grandmother.
My grandmother then passed it down to my mother, who although she would never say she outright believes in them, shared the stories with us, my sisters and i. The little people are small men who live in or around the house that cause minor mischief. Although they aren't necessarily out to hurt you, they can cause annoying and inconvenient things to happen. You are never to talk about them at night; this seems to call them near or anger them and that usually leads to unwanted involvement on their part.
An example of a small or playful mischief that my mother will account to the little people, although she still would not actually say she believes in them, happened when my twin sister and i were very small. My mother would always keep out shoes by the front door so that when we needed to leave for school we would know where they were. One day when were about to leave for school, my sister's shoes weren't where they were supposed to be. We all searched for the shoes all over the house, in our rooms, the living room, the kitchen, and couldn't find them. Finally, very angry, my mother told my sister to put on her flip flops because we were going to be late. That night when we came home, the shoes were sitting by the door. The laces were even tied in neat bows.
Something small and playful like that is what their pranks involve. No actual harm, just inconveniences. I have personally experienced 2 pranks that i can recall in detail. They both happened within the past three years. The first was when i was during a sunny summer day when I was doing the dishes. For convenience i always put the sponge that i use to clean in the same spot, on the counter by the sink. For some reason I was either called by my mother or distracted by something because i walked away. When i came back the sponge was gone. I searched all over the kitchen. I searched inside the sink and on the counters. It wasn't on the floor, or the kitchen table. Finally i just started to laugh and said "Ok, you got me. Give it back please." I walked out of the room, to give them a chance. When i walked back in, the sponge was on the counter next to the sink.
The second example would be when i was doing math homework during my freshman year in college. I had taken my textbook out, and in order to prevent it from getting lost i put my homework inside the book. Later when i went to put it in my book bag, i noticed the paper was gone. I searched through all of the pages in the textbook. I looked under the couch and the coffee table. No sign of it. Sighing with frustration i went over to get a new sheet of paper out of a drawer to redo my homework when i noticed a paper sitting on my lizard's cage. It was my homework. Again, the prank caused no harm but still caused frustration and eventually laughter.
It is important to know that the little people do not only cause problems. Many times they have helped me, rather than hindered me. It is a very common occurrence that i misplace my glasses or some other small important object. My entire family could help me look, but they never seem to be found until after i ask the little people for help. Other times, they seem to prevent or clean up messes, a job attributed to the house faeries called "brownies". Having cats means that messes are a very common occurrence. As stereotypical as it is, our cats are notorious for shredding toilet paper. One day my mother came home to find that someone had re-rolled the shredded toilet paper and put it back on the bathroom counter. Confused as to why we had re-rolled it instead of just throwing it away my mother asked us when we got home. The answer was puzzling because no one had known about the mess and didn't clean it up. Jokingly my little sister said in a over dramatized voice "it was the little people" and laughed. Although she mocked, i was one hundred percent sure it had been.
Although all of us, my two sisters and i, had grown up with the little people, i seem to be the only true believer in the house. As seen in the situation just stated, my little sister not only doesn't believe, but she mocks them. Faeries demand respect, house faeries are no different. Although she would never connect the dots, every time that my younger sister mocks or says something rude about the little people, something of hers always goes missing. Or she bumps into an object that normally wouldn't have been there, such as a stool or trips over a shoe.
As respectful as i am to them, i too have had to deal with the house faerie's wrath. Since my twin sister has gone to school in New York i have switched rooms with my little sister. My new room is smaller than my previous room and thus needs to be re-arranged whenever my twin comes home to visit. The very first time i rearranged the room so that i could fit the pullout mattress i didn't say anything to the house faerie(s). For the next two days i experienced severe pain in the form of stepping on sharp objects that should not have been in the carpet. I stepped on earrings, needles, tacks, and i even almost stepped a fishing hook. It got so bad that i had to wear shoes inside out of fear of what i would step on next. Finally, out of desperation on the third day i went into my room and apologized to the little people, one of whom i suspect lives in my room, and said that the change was only temporary. After the apology, sharp objects stopped showing up and my feet no longer seemed to be in danger.
But growing up with the little people was only one of the many aspects of faeries that impacted me.
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