Kate's Song

KATE’S SONG

by

Grandma Baadsgaard

Happy Birthday to my amazing granddaughter Kate.

Do you know that you make me smile inside?

Once there was a girl named Kate. While most grown-ups don’t believe in fairies, Kate does. Kate knows you have to be careful and quiet with fairies because they are easily frightened.

Kate likes to create fairy villages to entice wee ones to come to her house. She makes fairy bowls from acorn hats at her grandma’s house. She sews dresses from hollyhock pedals and lilac leaves with a long pine needle. She wraps sticks together to make tables, chairs and beds. Kate also knows fairies like sparkly things so she collects colorful bits of glass and jewelry. Kate knows fairies don’t come out when human are about but Kate can tell when they’ve been to her village because she can see crumbs strewn about or a colorful flower pedal left just so.

Kate’s most ardent wish is that a fairy will come out where she could see them. One day she thought of a plan. Kate sat at her piano and used her fingers to create fairy songs. She wrote the music notes down on paper and gave her songs titles such as: Fairy Lullaby and Elf Mischief. She took her songbook to her grandma’s house and walked out to the back pasture. Then she sat on a wooden fence and opened her book.

Kate sang softly so she wouldn’t frighten the wee people. As she sang she saw the pasture grass rustle in the wind. She almost thought she saw a fairy dart behind a rock. Then she   found a tiny dandelion crown in the grass.

“There are here,” Kate whispered to herself. “I hope they feel safe with me.”

Every day Kate brought a tiny blanket out to the pasture and left crumbs of food and all the tiny dishes and furniture she made for her wee friends. She left bits of glass and jewelry for them to carry away. Each day when she returned, the tiny objects were gone.

Kate searched and searched in the pasture but she couldn’t find their home. She explored in the plum trees back by the irrigation ditch. She lay in the grass and listened to insects in the grass or watched the clouds float across the blue sky.

Then she sang her fairy song . . .

As the moon rises over the mountain

And children have gone to bed,

wee ones come out to play and dance

and all their mysteries are said.

For fairies are real to children

wee ones fly about their dreams

so all the precious nippers

learn that nothing is as it seems.

So close your eyes and imagine

fairies are flying all about

and when you feel alone

 jump from your bed and shout.

Come home my winged friends

and find your rest with me

let my arms cradle you

Like the big blue China sea

            “Grandma,” Kate asked one day, “do you believe in fairies?”

“Yes,” Grandma answered. “I saw one once by a lilac bush in my back yard when I was just your age. My sisters tried to convince me that it was a dragon fly but I knew and I’ve always known. Don’t ever stop believing Kate. Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it is not real. You can’t see the wind but you can see the way the leaves move and the trees sway. You can’t see love but you can feel it deep inside.”

“ I love you grandma,” Kate said.

“I love you too,” Grandma answered.