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Rave Reviews
A PROSE POEM BY JENNIFER
Prelude
to the Fairy Godmother
Life
is like a fairytale filled with insurmountable obstacles, enormous
burdens and heart-breaking tragedies. Prior to the arrival of the
Fairy Godmother the story is composed of mind numbing monotony….or
is it? If fairytales are templates for living a life of wonder and
happiness… and who doesn’t believe in fairytales? Be honest. We
are all awaiting our happy ending.
So…What
went on in Cinderella’s life before the arrival of the Fairy
Godmother? How long did she mourn her parent’s death? How many
years did she scrub the house, run errands, cook meals, take care of
the animals and garden, living with a wicked stepmother, before the
entrance of the Fairy Godmother? What goes on inside Cinderella to
prepare her for the Fairy Godmother’s arrival? Are impossible
circumstances the fertile ground required before the arrival of
beneficent-supernatural-aide?
Here
is what I think happened. After the death of her parents Cinderella
was lost within her grief. She fell into a time I call The Great
Silence. She scrubbed floors, dusted the furniture, washes dishes
while she felt like she was walking on the ocean floor in cement
boots.
Cinderella’s
only solace was walking in the woods or working in her mother’s
gardens. It was several seasons of pruning roses and tending the
vegetable and herbs before The Great Silence let go its grip of
Cinderella. Until then soft summer days carried rose fragrance on the
hint of breeze while bees hum around Cinderella’s still blank
features.
Five
times early spring trees renew their green canopy under blue skies
then thicken with summer’s heat. Five times seasons change bringing
bare branches pristine and stark under winter’s grey sky.
Cinderella feels a kindred spirit in the tree’s loss of foliage.
She too has lost the comforts of her outer life. Trapped in The Great
Silence it is at once hard to care or feel and simultaneously the
anguish is overwhelming.
Slowly
Cinderella begins conversing with the garden. Beginning with the
stirring of power in spring and feeding and grooming the animals she
finds she can laugh at their gentle bumps. They press and snuffle
against her pockets looking for apples and carrots she brings from
the garden.
Returning
to the beauty in life, on days bright-edged after rain, Cinderella
follows mountain streams. Gathering moss she stores nature’s
bandages in her mother’s leather bag she rescued from the trash,
thrown out by her stepmother. The flowers embedded and dyed are
faded. One day she promises herself she’ll repaint the flowers.
She’ll follow the lines and curves of her mother’s design. Lost
in reverie, imagining colors, sometimes she feels her mother looking
over her shoulder with a smile. It makes her heart beat fast. The
moment passes in a flash leaving her shaken and so alone. But
Cinderella would never trade the split-second communion for the
renewed loss.
As
The Great Silence slowly loosens its grip she can breathe freely.
Sitting against the trees on the edge of the stream she sighs and
dozes. She drifts along the edge of sleep pulling her toward a
destiny she can barely remember. The warmth of summer sun softens
stiff muscles. Dappled shade fragrant with Bay Laurel, the abundant
leaves and tree arms create a lattice. Light shines through in greens
and hazy gold. In the safety, the congruency of life embracing her,
she dream walks with the Fairy Godmother. Cinderella prunes her
dreams shaping them with her Deepest Desires.
Her
Deepest Desires buffer her from the gut wrenching pain of living with
people who will destroy genuine love without a backwards glance.
Cinderella’s antidote is Beauty and Love. She tends the gardens
with love. She walks her dog, Blackie, in the forest communing with
Mother Nature. When did “communing” become laughable in our
task-urgent-time-sensitive culture?
Something
has changed. By calling on her strengths each day; morning, noon and
night she waits on her wicked family. But now Cinderella does not
focus on who she serves. She is engaged in giving and receiving love.
She is filled to overflowing with her Deepest Desires to love well.
Kitchen and wash rooms are scrubbed. Furniture is polished. Rugs are
beaten free of dust. Food is prepared with a prayer. The world under
Cinderella’s care shines with love. In this way she is preparing to
meet the Fairy Godmother.
Have
you forgotten fairytales are designed to impart wisdom? They are a
map to living a life filled with wonder. But who, exactly, is the
Fairy Godmother? Some say she is a magical creature. For her
prolonged exposure to the toxicity of modern life is lethal.
Negativity, pollution, deceit, conflict and duplicity these are
deadly for you too. Her home is in the ether realm of Fairy. But out
of her deep and abiding commitment to share the qualities of love,
beauty and virtue she occasionally penetrates our mortal world to
teach us.
Cinderella’s
first encounter with the Fairy Godmother takes place in the lush rows
of the vegetable garden in early evening. The air is beginning to
cool. Lengthening shadows bend color. The garden reflects the
deepening colors of plants and trees saturated in twilight. The Fairy
Godmother often appears at twilight. Within the balance of light and
dark, transitioning day to night, night to day, sunlight to
moonlight, while the trees sigh and take their breath, the Fairy
Godmother slides into the mortal world.
Cinderella’s
eyes pass over the Fairy Godmother and back track. Startled by the
Fairy Godmother’s perfection Cinderella is jarred out of pessimism
and the weight of her depression. Why? The Fairy Godmother is
complete in herself. She is whole, in a totality, both unique and
magical. Practical and specific to her goals and dreams, she is
unshakable in her optimism. The light and color of a million rainbows
fragment and permeate to surround her.
Cinderella’s
eye fell on the Fairy Godmother standing within the green leaves and
tassels of golden corn. How many times had Cinderella’s eye slid
over and away from the Fairy Godmother before she was able to hold
her vision steady? She knows society will say the Fairy Godmother
does not exist. Rational people do not see Fairy Godmothers hanging
out in the vegetable patch.
Have
you ever noticed when you are shocked or terrified suddenly your
priorities change? Cinderella’s world tilted. When she looked again
the Fairy Godmother stood next to her wearing a dress made from the
silk of fairy dust spun together into living oscillating threads of
light. Her face filled with ineffable beauty takes Cinderella’s
breath away.
How
does the Fairy Godmother teach? We each vibrate at the rate and
frequency of our thoughts, feelings and behavior. The Fairy Godmother
is incontrovertibly positive. For generations, millennium after
millenniums, she lives an uncompromising, radiant happiness creating
acts of beauty. Her lifestyle is dangerously optimistic. As a result
she expedites miraculous outcomes. Can you imagine being around such
a presence?
She
teaches as she lives; authentically. In her presence Cinderella can
hear the ring of truth. Knowing the sound she will never forget to
listen for its reverberation. The Fairy Godmother is aligned
mind-body-spirit-action. Understanding this congruency Cinderella can
achieve it. In the future she will recognize discrepancies,
incongruence’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
In
the presence of the Fairy Godmother Cinderella is jolted into
self-awareness. When we are in the presence of someone like the Fairy
Godmother, who knows their strength, knows their skills and engages
these resources to manifest Positive Possibilities: hope awakens
within us. We no longer vibrate at the frequency of our problems.
Instead we vibrate at the frequency of hope.
The
Fairy Godmother paid no attention to Cinderella’s difficulties or
ugliness in her life. She shifts Cinderella’s attention from what’s
wrong with her life (for example living with a wicked stepmother and
two selfish stepsisters with their never ending demands sucking
Cinderella dry of every ounce of life each day.) Instead the Fairy
Godmother asks Cinderella to define her Deepest Desires. Why? The
seeds of our happiness are embedded in our Deepest Desires.
There
is a time to grieve the past, calm and soothe trauma, comfort and
explore the depths of pain. But when you are ready for change and the
Fairy Godmother appears it’s time to focus on the future. It’s
time to find and define our Deepest Desires. Entwining our Deepest
Desires with our personal strengths ushers us into a state of
absorption and flow. We are lost in the pleasure of our growing
mastery. Our Deepest Desires ground us in our essential self and the
beneficence in our dreams is larger than our problems.
When
we are disconnected from our Deepest Desires life is a cardboard
imitation of happiness. Think of the people living in the beautiful
homes, with full access to opportunities and yet they are unhappy.
All women want to become queen. Cinderella’s stepsisters are in a
competition to become queen. For them becoming queen means they will
not have to do any work. People will line up to do them favors and
bring them gifts. They will have the most beautiful clothes and their
jewelry will outshine every other woman in the land.
Cinderella
doesn’t want to be queen in the “I’m more powerful than you”
sense. She wants to fulfill her Deepest Desires living within the
warm glow of realizing her ambitions. She wants to interact with life
from her strengths. Her actions will bring beauty to her world and
touch the lives with those she loves with beauty. True power is our
ability to create beauty. True power is our skill, our capacity to
choreography, while engaging our strengths our life with well-being.
This
is what Cinderella means when she wants to be queen. She wants to
give and receive love in a mutually beneficial loop of reciprocity.
She wants to share with her Prince. Their strengths will dovetail.
Together they are more powerful than when they are apart. Returning
to the garden landing with a jolt in the here and now, Cinderella
sighs. “It seems impossible…look at me dressed in rags.”
The
Fairy Godmother startles Cinderella with her laughter. “This is
what Deepest Desires looks like with everyone! They seem
unattainable. The obstacles are insurmountable. The burdens are
enormous.” The Fairy Godmother smiles at Cinderella. “By
clarifying your Deepest Desires, a relationship with the Prince,
Cinderella, you make contact with your authentic self.
Creating
beauty and positive outcomes in the midst of stress is at the heart
of the Fairy Godmother’s teachings. The Fairy Godmother is in her
way a transcendent quintessential radical. Yes, her teachings are
revolutionary. Awaken to the teachings of the Fairy Godmother and
prepare yourself. You too may stumble into transcendent happiness.
