Belief in the Cottiningley Fairies

Does the child in you ever take over? Do you let it?

Can you still imagine that world of make believe where Fairies exist and the big bad could be just around the corner? Is it easy to see sparkle in the stars and magic in the wind?

It is for me, but I think I have an irregularly active imagination. It’s the writer and artist in me I guess. I just can't help but see extraordinary things in the things that so many see as ordinary.

I have a theory. (Keep in mind my wild imagination.) As adults, we assume that children with imaginary friends just have over active imaginations. That the strange look your dog gives to something invisible behind you is just a bug. That the book that fell in your closet was just a freak thing. Or the branch scratching on your window is just the wind.

What if children are the only ones that see things clearly? Perhaps these magical creatures that we once believed in (or at least wanted to believe in) only show themselves to those of us with open minds… the children. They’re innocent in a way that no adults can be. They don’t question how or why, they just accept most things at face value. We as adults could NEVER do that. We have to know why, we have to exploit everything! No wonder we find it so difficult to believe in super natural and fantastical things… because we never see them! Because they don’t allow us to see them! 

It's pictures like this that make me want to believe in fairies and magic! If you don't know the story behind this image I suggest you do some research! It's the Cottiningley Fairies. The image was taken by two young cousins towards the end of World War 1. Though the two girls have claimed the pictures were falsified (after many years of swearing they were real, and after claiming they did actually see fairies), it certainly has an authentically whimsical feeling to it to me.

I haven't had enough personal experiences in my life to say if I definitively believe or do not believe in super natural and fantastical beings, but I can without a doubt say that I would like to.