Filling the Emptiness

Alright, my friends. Are you ready to have a very small adventure? Shall we go looking for trolls and treasure?

Here are the things you need to grab before we start:

• A small stack of 3x5 cards, or a post-it pad, or take a sheet of paper and cut it into eight pieces. I use all of the above, plus the backs of envelopes, napkins, cardboard boxes...
• A handful of pens, sharpies, pencils, crayons, or whatever it is you prefer to write with. 

Do you have them? Then let's begin.

link to original here

Once upon a time...

Okay, so I'm retelling a simplified version of a fairytale, but I'm going to be interjecting a lot. Putting my own spin on the story. Let's start with 'Once upon a time,' and let's imagine the time is now, rather than long ago.

There was a young woman named Ella. She was beautiful and intelligent, but after the death of her father, her step-mother and step-sisters took over the household and treated her like a slave.

Now let's imagine that Ella is you and me. As children we knew we were strong, smart, brave, quick to learn. It felt like we could do anything. But then things happened to us. Situations and circumstances we could not control. Even though we knew we were beautiful and intelligent, worthy of love and encouragement, some people treated us as if we were not.

Because they made her sleep in the kitchen, where it got very cold at night, Ella would curl up near the fireplace. By morning she was dirty from the soot, and never really got the chance to wash it off. Her step-sisters would mock her, calling her Cinderella.

I don't  know about you, but when someone tells me negative things for a long enough amount of time, it's hard not to believe those things myself. It gets to the point I start thinking, What's the point of washing the soot off? Am I even worthy of being clean and happy?

The young girl's life was very difficult. 

Pretty sure I don't need to elucidate on this, much. All our lives are difficult, in very different ways, for each one of us.

But then there was a call for all eligible women to come to a ball where the prince might pick out his future bride. 

Oh lovely hope. Here is a reminder that we are not stuck in our current circumstances. If we have a hope, a dream, or even the hope of a dream, we are not entirely empty. What are the chances Ella will be picked to be the next queen? Her's is a hopeless situation, if there has ever been any, and yet? And yet... (click here to continue)

Fairy Tale Friday: Three for the Price of One

link to original here

Back in March, Michelle at Buttered Toast Rocks (a sentiment I have to agree with) alluded to her favorite fairy tale – Donkey Skin – which I’d never heard of. When I snooped around for more details I found a deeply touching story. Beautiful, dark, and finally in the end – sweet.

It brought up issues of incest and hugely unequal power struggles, though, that at the time I wasn’t sure how to broach.  There are these harsh realities in life that are so hard to look at. I squench my eyes shut and measure my breathing, trying not to think about them. Things that shouldn’t happen, but do; that immobilize a person, or that make them wish they could simply disappear into oblivion.

I imagine that’s what the princess in Donkey Skin felt. 

Though I’ve never dealt with incest, I have had to deal with the backlash of terror and emotion that comes from being abused by someone I loved and trusted. I know I’m not alone in this feeling, and I know others can agree that that’s the worst part, isn’t it? That you open up the very softest parts of yourself to this person, but they use your tenderness for their own gain/pain/pleasure? How can that even be? It doesn't make sense. The ground becomes uneven under your feet as you ask question after question to try regaining your balance...

So while this story has been in my brain since March, I’ve tried to let it rest. Until today, that is, when my fairy tale wanderings inevitably led me back. This is my abridged journey:

link to original here

A few initial searches led me to this story. I’d never heard of Cap O’ Rushes before, but the interesting animation caught my eye. And then it turned out to be a fun little thing that reminded me of Cinderella. I knew I didn’t want to go there yet, and there were bits of Cap O’ Rushes that caught my whimsical attention – the meat and salt comment, the time period, the ring in the soup. 

What to do with that, though?

I butted my head multiple times against the “Love like Salt” idea, which is apparently a whole fairy tale sub-type unto itself. That had potential. But I kept looking.

Something in the dialogue of the Cap O’ Rushes YouTube page mentioned Sapsorrow, a variation on another old German fairytale, Allerleirauh. Both of these are in essence Donkey Skin, only Sapsorrow is a softer, more forgiving version.

Chunk out 23 minutes of your day and take a look:

I like this version because it is still beautiful though dark, still sweet in the end, but the father doesn’t seem to want to hurt his child. That one twist is what makes all the difference to me. I’m finally able to talk about Donkey Skin.

I find the similarities in these three stories interesting:

• The discontent and misunderstanding father. Usually it’s the mothers/step-mothers who play out the ‘evil’ card, eh? -- What about you? Do you get along better with your mom or dad?

• Instead of becoming slave to her changed and uncomfortable circumstances, our heroine uses her intellect to find an alternative solution. -- When you're in a situation you don't like, do you just shut down til things change? Or do you figure out how to get out of it on your own? 

•  Her alternative also involves using natural resources to hide her identity and beauty, whether they be rushes from a bog or skins and feathers from her animal friends. -- What part does nature hold for you in your healing processes?

• Laboring in the kitchens is her saving grace in multiple ways: working further supports her disguise, it’s here that she learns about the ball, and it’s also here that she either slips the ring into the soup or hears about the shoe. -- Does it bother you when you have to work, or do you find strength in getting your hands dirty?

• There is a point at which the prince finally gives a signal or sign that if the princes will trust him enough to come out of hiding, he will protect her from whatever it is she’s afraid of. -- Do you have signals for things with your friends and loved ones too? Scratching your nose means you're ready to leave the party, or something?

• The princess is the only person who can truly answer that sign completely and comfortably, not because she’s a princess or because she’s beautiful, but because the shoe was made for her and no one else. The ring was given to her and no one else.  It is a role that only she can fill.-- This last one's a doosey, init? The thought that we alone can fulfill our parts, our roles, in this chaotic thing called life -- whatever that may be for each of us. And? And that we have a choice in the matter. We can try on the kicks, or we can chose not to. 

So similarities are interesting because, while I may not have lived any of these fairy tales, I’ve felt similar feelings. And I’m sure you have had similar feelings too. How is it that we can all experience such different lives, but still be connected in these similar emotions? 

Why do we still pass on these stories, with little changes made here and there, from one generation to the next? 

What is so powerful that it makes a person not want to talk about a story completely unrelated to their own life, but is felt deeply nonetheless? 

Dare I say it’s magic? What would you dare to say?

Moment of Magic today:

link to original here

Obviously I'd pass on trying on this type of glass slipper. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong. I love that my life doesn't require me to wear high heals, though. Not ever. Or at least if it does, I still choose not to.

Fairy Tale Friday: Mad Masterpieces

So many fabulous participants madly adding to the fun. Here's today's Fairy Tale in 10 Mad Masterpiece renditions -- click on the pic to enlarge:

The Enormous Bumblebee
Adapted by Z

The Ball Cutter Fish
Adapted by Shaun

link to original here

The Reddish Eel
Adapted by Shasta

The Sleepy Joe (in a Bad Mood)
Adapted by Sleepy Joe

The GMORK
Adapted by DR

link to original here

The Knock-Knock-Knock
Adapted by Heth (aka Kins)

The Voodoo Doll
Adapted by Chubs and Slim Evans

link to original here

 

The Joker (as played by Heath Ledger)
Adapted by Caitlyn

The Plaid Barney
Adapted by Hubs (of course I wrangled him into this?)

East of the Sun, West of the Moon
Original by Asbjornsen and Möe, Condensed by dbstevens
This is only a snippet, the story continues here (though I had nothing to do with the SurLaLune abridgment (and definitely check out the annotations on their site -- they make the story so much better)).

link to original here

So many thanks to everyone who participated. If there are any mistakes, blatant or otherwise, I apologize. The fault is on me, not those who did the adaptations.

Happy fairy tales and weekend wonders, everyone!

Moment of Magic today:

I had 10 of them, and they were all so awesome.

Fairy Tale Friday: Fairy Ointment

It starts out like this:

First of all (and I apologize that this may be a tiny bit off topic?), I'm not sure who May is, but I do know that if Hubs started anything with the dedication of, "To my Dear Little Deb," I'm positive I would just melt in the most delicious way. For whatever that's worth.

So have we all heard of Joseph Jacobs? I hadn't until recently, and if you're like me in this you can find some basics here and here.

His English Fairy Tales begins with the above introduction, and continues on to retell a bunch of old favorites. He classifies them as: "Of the eighty-seven tales contained in my two volumes, thirty-eight are Märchen proper, ten sagas or legends, nineteen drolls, four cumulative stories, six beast tales, and ten nonsense stories."

You can find the book in its entirety in many places online. For an amazing archival experience I suggest going to Project Gutenberg. If you just want the book with easy links to each story, Philipp Lenssen has put together a great page here where you can do that.

All this is to say that it's from Jacobs' book that I bring you today's Fairy Tale, which actually includes fairies this time. Fabulous? Yes. It includes the word "squinny." Even more fabulous? Most definitely yes.

Enjoy:


Fairy Ointment

Dame Goody was a nurse that looked after sick people, and minded babies. One night she was woke up at midnight, and when she went downstairs, she saw a strange squinny-eyed, little ugly old fellow, who asked her to come to his wife who was too ill to mind her baby. Dame Goody didn’t like the look of the old fellow, but business is business; so she popped on her things, and went down to him. And when she got down to him, he whisked her up on to a large coal-black horse with fiery eyes, that stood at the door; and soon they were going at a rare pace, Dame Goody holding on to the old fellow like grim death.

link to original here

They rode, and they rode, till at last they stopped before a cottage door. So they got down and went in and found the good woman abed with the children playing about; and the babe, a fine bouncing boy, beside her.
Dame Goody took the babe, which was as fine a baby boy as you’d wish to see. The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby’s eyes with it as soon as it opened them. After a while it began to open its eyes. Dame Goody saw that it had squinny eyes just like its father. So she took the box of ointment and stroked its two eyelids with it. But she couldn’t help wondering what it was for, as she had never seen such a thing done before. So she looked to see if the others were looking, and, when they were not noticing she stroked her own right eyelid with the ointment.

No sooner had she done so, than everything seemed changed about her. The cottage became elegantly furnished. The mother in the bed was a beautiful lady, dressed up in white silk. The little baby was still more beautiful than before, and its clothes were made of a sort of silvery gauze. Its little brothers and sisters around the bed were flat-nosed imps with pointed ears, who made faces at one another, and scratched their polls. Sometimes they would pull the sick lady’s ears with their long and hairy paws. In fact, they were up to all kinds of mischief; and Dame Goody knew that she had got into a house of pixies. But she said nothing to nobody, and as soon as the lady was well enough to mind the baby, she asked the old fellow to take her back home. So he came round to the door with the coal-black horse with eyes of fire, and off they went as fast as before, or perhaps a little faster, till they came to Dame Goody’s cottage, where the squinny-eyed old fellow lifted her down and left her, thanking her civilly enough, and paying her more than she had ever been paid before for such service.

Now next day happened to be market-day, and as Dame Goody had been away from home, she wanted many things in the house, and trudged off to get them at the market. As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse. And what do you think he was doing? Why he went about from stall to stall taking up things from each, here some fruit, and there some eggs, and so on; and no one seemed to take any notice.

Now Dame Goody did not think it her business to interfere, but she thought she ought not to let so good a customer pass without speaking. So she ups to him and bobs a curtsey and said: “Gooden, sir, I hopes as how your good lady and the little one are as well as––”

But she couldn’t finish what she was a-saying, for the funny old fellow started back in surprise, and he says to her, says he: “What! do you see me today?”

“See you,” says she, “why, of course I do, as plain as the sun in the skies, and what’s more,” says she, “I see you are busy too, into the bargain.”

“Ah, you see too much,” said he; “now, pray, with which eye do you see all this?”

“With the right eye to be sure,” said she, as proud as can be to find him out.

“The ointment! The ointment!” cried the old pixy thief. “Take that for meddling with what don’t concern you: you shall see me no more.” And with that he struck her on her right eye, and she couldn’t see him any more; and, what was worse, she was blind on the right side from that hour till the day of her death.



Moment of Magic today:

Time for you to share...what was your magic moment today? This weekend? 

  

Fairy Tale Friday: Happily Ever After & the Easter Bunny

My calendar shows me that today is many things: a full moon, Good Friday, and Passover starts at sundown. It’s the beginning of Easter weekend, with all sorts of yummy candy and baskets and brightly painted eggs. 

I woke up this morning to a yard full of snow. Blech.

link to original here

But this afternoon the sky is blue, the sun warm and powerful. Now it’s the frozen water that's clinging desperately to branches, rather than the delicate green leaves. Score one for the blossoms. 

The seasons have officially turned, rogue winter storm or no (Heh. Did two X-Men characters just inadvertently pop into your head like they did mine?).

So today’s Fairy Tale Friday brings us two things: “Happily Ever After,” and the Easter Bunny. Interesting mix? Let’s see where we can go with this…

The phrase “Happily Ever After” is so intrinsically tied to the fairy tale that one would not really exist without the other. Even original fairy tales, with their darker outlook on life, had endings wherein the main characters are rewarded as their conduct deserves. The wolf may have eaten Little Red Riding Hood in the end, but duh, she shouldn’t have talked to a stranger.

Granted, that’s not how our current version of Little Red ends, which very much makes me wonder…bah. I’m losing focus.

Happy endings. Yes. Our favorite characters may have ghastly trials along the way, but as One Thousand and One Nights says,“they lived happily until there came to them the One who Destroys all Happiness (i.e. Death)).”

link to original here

Ah yes, Death, there is that. Yet so many people I know think true happiness doesn’t come until after they die. Heaven? Nirvana? Elysian Fields? Olympia? The Happy Hunting Grounds…I can go on, but I think we get the point. 

The last couple of weeks have been thoughtful for me, even painful at times. An unusual string of events led me to searching, pulling out old books, asking friends and mentors for tips and bits of strength, ideas that could give me courage and hope. 

One phrase especially stuck out, and leads me to believe the idea behind “Happily Ever After” isn’t so much an ending, but rather a continuation of things in a new light of understanding:

“Follow your bliss.”

Uh. What? 

Live Happily Ever After starting this moment.

Right. Meaning what, exactly?

Do what makes you happy. Think about, believe in, fixate on, whatever makes you happy; rather than on what makes you uncomfortable, hateful, confused, full of grief. You can only think one conscious thought at a time, so why not chose to make it a good one?

This isn’t so much “thinking positively,” as it is believing, feeling, and doing positively. Knowing that life right now is just as valuable and wonderful – regardless of whatever pain and deprivation we’ve survived thus far – as it will be after Death takes us to whatever paradise we believe in (even if that paradise is simply Nothing). 

I get stuck in my head, a lot, thinking about Winter. For some reason I think that if I can just figure it out, I won’t have to experience it any more. No more hard times, no more frustration, no more tears. 

But then what’s really happening is that I’m stuck in Winter when it’s Spring blooming around me, and then it’s lovely Summer, and isn’t Fall magnificent? Yet I haven’t been experiencing anything but snow this whole time.

link to original here

Spring is here, my friends (including you). It may be Winter in your world still, but know that underneath the snow and ice are millions of powerful little seeds just waiting to come up. Chose to shine some light on them, rather than focusing on the cold around you. 

Make your “Happily Ever After” your continuum of life right now.

The bliss phrase was my Easter Bunny, my little messenger of Spring, but maybe yours is something else. And if it is, maybe you can share in the comments? Or blog about it, and we’ll link some stories up so there’ll be many rays of sunshine from all over the world in one place at one time.  Hope and love magnified.

Meanwhile, I wish you happy celebrations for this weekend, whatever that looks like for you. Don’t have anything planned? Well today’s Fairy Tale Friday is your first seed. Grow from it what you will.

Total pages logged as of today: 183 but visit my Deadline Updates page for more info

Moment of Magic today:

As of right now, I'm putting in my request to be Jackie Chan in my next life, yo. Here's why...

Fairy Tale Friday: Snow White and Rose Red

“There is no satisfactory equivalent to the German word märchen, tales of magic and wonder such as those collected by the Brothers Grimm: Rapunzel, Hansel & Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Six Sans, and other such familiar stories. We call them fairy tales, although none of the above stories actually contains a creature called a ‘fairy’…”

link to original here

So begins Terri Windling’s introduction to Patricia C. Wrede’s spectacular rendition of Snow White and Rose Red. This is by far my favorite version of said fairy tale, and now that I’m revisiting my copy, I’m wondering if my love is in part because the introduction is so spectacular. 

And I’m not one for introductions. If the first page of a book starts with "Introduction" enlarged and bolded across the top, I’m more likely to put it down in favor of doing a load of laundry instead.

And I’m not one for doing laundry. Ask Hubs…or on second thought, don’t.

Terri Windling is the creator and editor of the Fairy Tales series, so she writes this intro to give background on fairy tales in general. Some of her points:

•  Fairy tales were originally created for adult audiences, and were very popular, used widely as fodder for many well-known authors' and poets' work. Both the aristocracy and people of the masses loved them (you probably already knew this?).

• It wasn't until the Age of Enlightenment, when more emphasis was placed on rational and scientific ways of thinking, that literary fantasy went out of fashion. “[Fairy tales] came to be seen as fit only for children, relegated to the nursery…” (maybe you didn’t know this?).

• A lot of the tales date back thousands of years, back to when stories were oral rather than written, and much of the magic I imagine was in the face-to-face telling; the leaning into each other, waiting breathlessly for what’s going to happen next; the flicker and smell, the warmth, of fire as people drink and eat and gather around the hearth (I kind of knew this, though in truth, I hadn’t thought about how important it was).

• Yet much of the magic, the heroism, and the courtly romance has been lost in watered-down versions of the stories. Some have been altered so much that the originals have been pretty much forgotten. Do we all know that the little mermaid really dies at the end? Something having to do with sea foam…?

Which is one of the reasons I brought Snow White and Rose Red to the forefront again. Most people I know don’t recall this fairy tale. I didn’t, when I first found Patricia’s version. I was at that tenuous age somewhere around 14 or 15, where I was sure I knew pretty much everything there was to know, and yet I could be shaken off my foundations with one ungracious “puuff” from teacher, friend, or foe.

This fairy tale shook my foundations, but in a good way. “I thought I knew all the fairy tales," I said to myself, then, being a voracious reader. "There’s more?” 

Tonight, with a sigh that releases some of the desperation I didn’t know was there, I smile a little. "I thought I knew it all," I chuckle to myself, now, trying everyday to be a voracious live-er. "But thankfully there’s always more."

link to original here

Huge thanks to DR and Sleepy Joe, who boldly took up my little challenge from last week’s Fairy Tale Friday. In doing so you did multiple things that are very meaningful to me – 

      You remembered. You took some time out of your lives to think about and then create something beautiful and unique, something no one else could have created. Time is hard to come by, these days. Beauty, uniqueness too. I can’t find these stories anywhere else but on your blogs? Truly awesome.

      Then you shared your stories. This is a big deal, I know, because you’re putting pieces of yourselves out there for others to read, draw judgments about, opening yourselves to potential ridicule. But you’re also opening yourselves to the idea of community, that you’re part of something bigger, and that you’re words and your humanity are an integral ingredient of what makes up the whole. 

      By sharing you invite me, and other readers, to your virtual hearth. I’m bringing my own beverage, I hope you've got something yummy too? We may be thousands of miles apart, but tonight the flicker of the screen lights up my face, I’m leaning in, and as I go through your variations of the Snow White and Rose Red story, I can tell that  somehow you've tapped into the magic that was there before. 

Maybe the originals aren't entirely lost, rather locked away somewhere inside ourselves? What do you think?

Here are their links:

DR -- http://duckonawire.blogspot.com/2012/03/writing-assignment-challenge-1.html

Sleepy Joe -- http://sleepyjoes.blogspot.com/2012/03/fairy-tale-friday.html

Happy reading!

Total pages logged as of today: 183 but visit my Deadline Updates page for more info

Moment of Magic today:

Refer to all of the above. I'm basking in it all tonight.

Fairy Tale Friday: Riddle Me This

link to original here

So riddle me this: what fairytale uses these story elements?

Setting: Cottage in a forest, winter initially, though the main action happens later in the summer.

Characters: Two sisters (or just one, depending on the telling), their mother, a bear, and then later an ungrateful dwarf (and again depending on what version it is, there's also a brother that shows up later, but to tell you who he's a brother to would most likely give everything away).

Some of the Conflict Includes: The bear comes into the cottage to get out of the cold, the dwarf gets himself into all kinds of trouble, and later the dwarf curses the girls.

Click Here to Show Answer

link to original here

Total pages logged as of today: 183 but visit my Deadline Updates page for more info

Moment of Magic today:

Friday = dancing around the kitchen day. Do you dance too, when there's no one there to see you?

Fairy Tale Friday: The Goose with the Golden Eggs Pt. 2

link to original here

Alas my fair readers, I’ve purposely mislead you, for a goose is not a gumball machine. Even heart-of-the-city-girl that I am, I know the difference.

This folktale is most often linked with the idea of greed, but I think there’s something else embedded in the story we’ve lost. If it was merely about the egg, why wouldn’t we say it was a chicken or a duck who laid the golden egg? There are far too many references to geese in our older stories. Mother Goose. The Golden Goose. Aphrodite rode on the back of a goose.

There’s something, something about the goose. I just can’t put my finger on it. Here are a few bits that have sifted to the top of my research:

• “The history of the goose is steeped in both mythology and ancient symbolism (original link here).”

• “Apparently [the goose which laid the sun egg] was at one time sacred… The sun god Ra, of Egypt, was supposed to have been hatched from the egg which rose from the primordial deep (original link here).” 
• “In China geese are still a symbol of marriage, because of their lifelong pair-bond (original link here).”

And to bring it to a more personal level, this is an experience my friend shared with me about her geese:

“My husband and I wanted geese and one of my former students who lived down the street had two they needed to find new homes for. The reason? The school bus stop was in front of their house and, while the children waited for the bus, the geese would chase and bite the kids. A new home was needed immediately. That's where we got lucky. So did the geese. So did the kids.

These geese were named Hondo and Jane. They were an item and spent all of their time together. On the morning of the first snow of the year, I went to my car to go to school and saw Hondo dead in the street. (Apparently they had both been sitting in the middle of the smooth, now white, pavement because it made a nice resting place, but a passing car or truck must have struck them.) Jane was nowhere in sight, but there was a trail of blood leading to the pasture behind our house. 

My husband followed the blood and found Jane at the end of the trail. She had a puncture wound from the vehicle. Scott brought Jane into our unfinished basement and called the veterinarian who said most people wouldn't even bother. They'd just put her out of her misery. We decided we could clean the wound and apply the usual human medicine…Neosporin…and hope for the best.

Jane spent several weeks in the basement and never once made any attempts to bite us or hit us with her wings. She seemed to know we were trying to help her. After all of that time looking in her eyes, we could tell there was more there than dinner, and we never ate meat again.”

-- Mary Bedingfieldsmith

Now. I’m not necessarily saying you should stop eating meat (though it wouldn’t really hurt?). And I’m not saying you should start believing in God(s), fairies, and dragons (though that couldn’t really hurt either?)

What am I trying to say?

I’m not sure, exactly, except that it’s much too easy to just intone, “Don’t be greedy.” As evidenced by the results of the poll, and by peoples’ comments from Part 1, there’s a lot more involved in this scenario.

The heartache and moral for me in this folktale is not that the man has lost his magic gold dispensary, but that the goose has lost its magic life.

Because life is magical, whether we see it and acknowledge it, or not. Call it what you will, but there is a rhythm, a synchronicity here, and we’re all part of it somehow. I may not have been able to exactly identify what’s embedded in this story, today, but I can feel it there. I can tell there’s more. 

And that is magic.

What about you and your experiences? What do you think the significance of the goose is in this folktale?

Total pages logged as of today: Visit my First Draft -- Deb Stats page to find out

Moment of Magic today:

I watch their shoulder muscles move as they fly and think, "Oh, how exhausting." Birds seem so frail. This is another reminder to me that things are never exactly what they seem.

Fairy Tale Friday: The Goose with the Golden Eggs Pt. 1

link to original here

For those unfamiliar with this story, this is a pretty good link to get you started.

Now indulge me here please. For many of us, the closest we’ve ever been to a real goose is when we’ve gone to feed the birds at the local city pond.

Have you ever noticed that regardless of how “domesticated” the geese are, they will be the first ones to chase you with their broad wings spread out, flapping angrily, their loud scary honking right behind you with their sharp beaks snapping, for at least half the length of the pond? The ducks don’t do that. What’s up with the big guys, huh?

Anyway. Let me change things up a bit with this folktale. Say I give you, free of charge and just because I like you, a machine that every morning clinks out a piece of gold about the size of a goose egg.

Imagine a large gumball machine, or one of those square vending machines at grocery stores you can get trinkets and fake tattoos from. Only instead of a gumball, out comes a solid gold goose egg. Again, for those of us with nothing to reference this information with, here’s a visual of a goose egg compared to a chicken egg:

link to original here

I called an appraiser about this (totally played up the incognito bit; homework for today’s post was all kinds of fun) and he said it would depend on a lot of things – the weight of the piece, whether it was solid gold all the way through, blah, blah – but on the fly he would price it anywhere between two and three thousand dollars. Maybe more. He’d have to see it to give me a true price.

So one piece of gold, worth upwards of three grand rolls out of this machine, into your happy hand, every morning. Talk about the best part of waking up, eh?

“How long will it do this?” you ask me.

I shrug my shoulders, “I don’t really know. Sorry. Indefinitely?”

So chances are, the machine could stop tomorrow. Or maybe it’ll keep going until you’re on your death bed, and then you hand it down to a close relative who asks, with puzzled look, how long it’ll clink out the golden orbs. Whereupon you shrug your shoulders like I did, saying, “I don’t know, really. Sorry. Indefinitely?”

But what if…just what if? You were to take apart the machine to see how it works? It couldn’t be that hard, could it? Just to see if you can find the source of all that gold, and then have thousands, hundreds-of-thousands, maybe even millions of dollars worth of gold all at once in your hand. Rather than having to wait day by day to receive the eggs. Or not receive them, because again, you have no idea when it will stop.

link to original here

What if you could reproduce the machine? Awesome, no doubt, eh? Then you could make money off the eggs, and off the machines you create from it too. You could sell the machines, or you could keep them for the extra eggs, or both.

Then again, what if you took it apart and it just broke? No more eggs, no more nothing. Ugh, could you imagine? I'd be so, so... I don't even know the word. "Grumpy" doesn't even come close.

Would you do it? Would you crack open the machine? Or would you just accept the daily offerings of golden nuggets, glad to have them, heart full of hope that they'll continue to come indefinitely?

Vote (look up, top-left for new poll) until next Thursday, March 15, and then Friday our story will continue.

 Total pages logged as of today: Visit my First Draft -- Deb Stats page to find out

Moment of Magic today:

I'm falling short here. I've had a bad day. Anyone? Want to share? I'd very much appreciate it.

Fairy Tale Friday: The Little Red Hen

Link to original here

I remember thinking this story was so sad when I was little. The poor pig, cat, and duck, yes, but poor hen too. Maybe it’s because one of the lessons we push most on kids is sharing? I don’t know. I just remember thinking that bread must have had a rather bitter taste. 

I imagined the little red hen sitting pulled up to the table, hunkered over the loaf, slathering gobs of soft, melting butter on each thick, warm slice. Mmm, my mom made bread for us back then, so I knew exactly how exquisite was that smell. The hen would no-doubt be in a veritable heaven, shoveling the whole, crumbly loaf into her little beak one golden piece at a time. 

But then I knew all that rich, home-baked goodness would be too much, and I imagined her getting sick on it, belly bulging and over-full. Her eyes would close and she’d hold her stomach, fighting to keep all that bread down.

Now I’m older I get the story. A little bit, anyway, because I’ve had a few experiences where I’ve put a lot of work into something but then someone else reaps the benefits.

That feeling sucks. 

And yet? Reading back over this folktale, I still can’t help but be sad for everyone involved.

The pig, cat, and duck should have helped, yes. But the hen should have forgiven her friends as well, and shared what she’d worked so hard to create. To me it seems obvious that this would be a much better ending to the story?

Now that I’m older, and I don’t have to just accept the fairytales as they’re given to me, in my head I imagine this other scenario of how that last scene could have played out:

Link to original here

The little red hen accepts the cat, the duck, and the pig as they are, and opens her door for them to join her. The friends all sit together around the table, jovially slathering big blobs of butter on their slices, laughing and telling each other stories about their adventures in the mud, the pond, etc.

The friends are apologizing to the hen for not helping, but they’re also gushing in their compliments about how good the bread is. She feels happy that they appreciate her effort, even if they didn't contribute to it. And she can tell they’re sincere because of the way their eyes glow, their smiles linger, and they unconsciously hum as they lick their fingers.

How much better would that bread taste? Sweet and rich, warm in their bellies. And no one gets sick, because there’s just enough for all.

Total pages logged as of today: Visit my First Draft -- Deb Stats page to find out

Moment of Magic today:

Fairy Tale Friday: The Frog Prince

Alpha, about a year ago -- oh how he hated this suit.

Okay, so what we’ve got is a prince who, for whatever reason, has been cursed to wear a frog suit and it makes him sad.

Now, while I have no problem coming up with a few perks to being a frog – off the top of my head? Strong green legs, for one – our young prince doesn’t like it. Maybe because no girls will kiss him, which I’m made to understand is something guys really like, so. I guess I get why he doesn’t appreciate the frog suit.

But I can also understand why nobody wants to kiss him. When I imagine the texture of something slimy touching my lips, I think of a horrible smell, putrid decay, stickiness stretching into long strings. 

And of course it’s almost impossible to keep stuff out of your mouth once it’s been on your lips (it says here the average woman will consume 6 pounds of lipstick in her lifetime? I have no idea if that’s really true, but I do know one of my first instincts after putting chapstick on is to lick my lips.) 

On top of the slime, there’s also the chance that the frog may be poisonous.  I’ve often wondered if that played a part in the original story.

Regardless, no one’s kissing our prince, though inside he is a sweet, kind, person. Or maybe he’s cruel? Maybe he’s a techy without many social skills. But then, why am I assuming a techy would automatically have fewer social skills? Perhaps that label is a frog suit, of sorts.

Fairy Godmother -- link to original here

Perhaps all labels are curses we put on each other to rationalize our want to disassociate from things we don’t understand. And we’re all just waiting for a fairy godmother to lift the curse and make it better. Or a princess to come along and see past the suit into the “real” person inside, hoping she’ll kiss away the ugliness to make it better.

My initial reaction to the label/frog suit idea is: “Duh, just do away with the labels. Obviously what we’ve got here is a prince, not a frog.”

But I know that’s not a very realistic approach to life because, even if something seems obvious, it’s hardly ever entirely the way it seems. Theories are always good in theory, eh?

Labels have their place in society. They are a great organizational tool, among other things. I suppose what I don’t like about imposing frog suits on people is that we use the suits to justify cruelty and hate. “It’s okay if I’m blatantly offensive to this guy, because he’s    (fill in the blank)   ."

I don’t know what the answer is. Do you?

I do know, though, that I hope someday my little prince will be loved, frog suit or not. I hope he will be accepted and encouraged, rather than pushed out and discouraged. I am his mama, and I see the prince; but even if others see a frog, I hope they’ll respect him anyway. 

And lest you be disappointed at my (mis)handling of “The Frog Prince,” take a look at a punnier version put on by the Fractured Fairytale folks:

Total pages logged as of today: 160 (Apparently the pep-talk worked and I'm that much closer to deadline. Counting down to 5 days, 4 chapters left.) 

Moment of Magic today:

Here are some of my visuals for tonight's writing --

Again, what stories do they create in your mind? I dare you to write one down and see where it'll take you... 

Link to original here

Link to original here

Link to original here