Gabriel Strump
Author of Vreeland
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Opening to Faeries—Are They Fact or Fiction

3/22/2015

1 Comment

 
“Well?” Dad asked.  “Do you believe there are faeries in the garden or not?”
“Yes,” Anton replied.  “I believe!”

Last summer, I decided to add some mushroom compost to my flower gardens.  It’s supposed to be good for the soil where I live, but its use remains controversial, which is all the more reason for me to give it a try. 

Not long after, a very large single mushroom appeared in my lawn.  It was nearly a foot tall.  Apparently, I must’ve dropped some of the compost.  Well, that seemed logical to me at the time.  Despite the fact that there were no other mushrooms growing anywhere else in the yard.  Hmm.

Now, you have to understand.  My book, Vreeland, was in the midst of its publishing process.  I had just recently—not long before this at all—approved the illustration of Anton sitting under a mushroom.

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By Natalia Starikova Copyright ©2015 Gabriel Strump

My neighbor knew of none of this.  She had no idea I had even written a book.  She just so happened to catch me in the act of photographing the mushroom.

“Oh no!” she said.  “Do you know what that means?  The FAERIES are moving in.”

Whether she was teasing or not I do not know.  But I believe she was right.

So now comes the question: Do faeries really exist or not?

Out working in the garden in my leisure, I had often thought I had seen movement on the ground or in the air around the flowers.  I had thought I had heard little giggles.  I had thought I had felt some sort of happy presence around me.  But I usually dismissed it as probably being bugs of some kind.
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If you study this photograph of the real mushroom from my yard, you may or may not see some faerie-like beings.  I saw some.  I showed the photo to others.  They didn’t see anything but a mushroom.

I’ll come back to this in a future blog, because I just so happened to send the photo to an expert on these things, and she saw several times more faeries than I did. 


I have actually studied quite a bit about faeries and angels and spirits and other so called supernatural beings.  I didn’t do this specifically for my book.  I had interest, or at least a curiosity of such things.  Now it is pure fascination.  I intend to return to this topic often and write on these things.  Subscribe to my FREE newsletter if this is entertaining to you.

I suppose, as in all things supernatural, it all comes down to whether one believes in these things or not.  I must say, I have come to believe in faeries.  I am quite certain they have indeed moved in.  
They play with the cat toys.
When the cats are by me.  No, it’s not the dog.  He is too busy cowering under the bed.  I think they torment the poor thing sometimes. 

The cats will stare together.  Their heads will move together.  They are most obviously being entertained.  What are they watching?  Who are they watching?

The faeries have made the gerbils’ tubes into an amusement park—the gerbils, their rides.  They swing on the swings in the bird cages and ring the little bells.  (The faeries, not the gerbils.)  They swim with the fish.  And they eat all my strawberries.

And my Girl Scout cookies!

Well, it wasn’t me!  It’s Lent.

When it was so very cold, I am quite sure they were all cuddled up with me and the cats in bed.  Occasional I would see them sparkle.

No, it wasn’t static electricity.  Some of them snored.

They would sing lullabies in the middle of the night.  In perfect harmony.  And they would each take a turn whispering “I love you” in my ears. 

I find myself talking to them, just like I do my pets.  I’m positive they are happy to see me come home.  As Kyli might say, “I’m theih vriend.”

          “Crazy!” you say?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

To those of you who refuse to believe, the faeries will go out of their way to make their presence known to you.  They do stuff like:

  • Steal and hide your keys.  
  • Or your glasses.  
  • Or your money.  Well, you most certainly would not ever stick your wallet in the freezer, would you?
  • They turn off your alarm in the middle of the night so you oversleep the next morning.
  • They make your faucet drip when you’re trying to sleep.  They need fresh water.
  • They flush your toilet in the wee hours of the night because you forgot to.  They use that to swim and bathe in.
  • They hypnotize you to fall asleep in front of your TV so they can watch movies all night.
  • They have parties in your home.  When the doorbell rings and you open the door and nobody’s there?  The guests have arrived.  How nice of you to open the door for them.
  • Sometimes they drink all your beer, or soda, and raid your refrigerator and closets.  They get thirsty and hungry too, you know. 
  • They knock things off of counters.
  • They leave closet doors open.
  • They move things around.

Oh, how we love to blame these things on our pets.

Or our children.

          “Crazy?” I say.

The faeries are reading over my shoulder and giggling.

Make peace with them.  They will bring you happiness and love and success. 
     Because in the end, that’s what they’re all about.
          You see—they believe in you.  
               They love you.  
                    They wish the best for you.


Now it’s your turn to believe.
Not necessarily in faeries.  But in YOU.

In a way, faeries represent everything that is good in you. 
          It’s time to embrace that. 
               To believe in that. 
                    To love that.

Fact or fiction?  You choose.
Copyright ©2015 GABRIEL STRUMP
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A  Dirty Story—A Dirty Little Secret

2/20/2015

0 Comments

 
Once upon a time, I decided to plant a garden around my house.

     Oh—I already had some bushes.
     And some hostas too.
     I really loved the hostas.  I could accidentally mow then down and they'd come right up and be beautiful despite me.
     But I wanted more.


     Now—you have to understand—I'm the guy whose house was always full of


                                                          POTS of DIRT.

   Well, they started out as potted plants.  You know—poinsettias, orchids, mums, ferns ...
They didn't quite make it.
     Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I know.  Water is kind of important.

     I decided to get pets instead.  Unlike the potted plants, the pets let me know when they needed water.  Usually at 3:00 in the morning.

     Okay—if the garden is outside, I figured, the RAIN will water for me.

     As it ended up, I had to help.  But, at least for me, playing with a hose outside was much more fun than carrying around a plastic watering thingie with rainbows painted on it inside.
     Besides—if I angled the hose just right, it made real rainbows.  Cool!

     I planted mostly perennials.  I read up on things, studied the different types of flowers, carefully planned my garden on paper in the wee hours of the night, ordered a bunch of seeds and stuff, and then spent almost an entire vacation digging and planting and creating something new for my yard.


     Except, it was August, which is sort of late.
     I did have a few pretty things growing by September.
     I found out later they were weeds.
     And hostas, of course.
     But mostly I had, well,

                                                    A BUNCH of DIRT.

     "You?  You're going to plant a garden?"
                    Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!
     "You're going to get your hands dirty?"
                    Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!
     You're wearing jeans?"
                    Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!

     Have you ever noticed that whenever you try to do something new, no matter how much you may enjoy it, and no matter how much you may believe in it, your family and friends seem to go out of their way to make fun of you;
     to laugh,
          to point their fingers,
               to do their best to put you down and make you feel like an idiot?

     Here's the dirty little secret:

                                                 DO IT ANYWAY!

     I did.
  • The research
  • The planning
  • The cost
  • The hard work
  • The new-found excitement

     And all I had to show for it was, well,

                                                   A BUNCH of DIRT.  

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     How can we ever really know what goes on inside a seed, or a bulb, or a tuber, or a system of roots under the ground?
     How can we ever describe what goes on inside our hearts when everything is about to change for the better?
     It didn't happen overnight.  To me, it seemed like it took forever.  But to everyone else, it was magic.


     First, there was winter.
          Cold.
               Gray.
                    Ice.
                         Snow.
     A long-held tone on a tuba—until its player passed out.


                                              Gloom.

     But then, suddenly:
  • A tiny high trill on a flute
  • Tinkling bells
  • Strings
  • Woodwinds
  • Brass
  • Timpani
  • A mighty pipe organ
  • A choir
  • A screaming distorted electric guitar

     Sparkles and twinkles and fireworks.
          Footlights, spotlights, floods.
               And the curtain goes up.


                               FLOWERS!

     Tulips and crocuses and daffodils and dandelions.
          Roses and daisies and black-eyed Susans.
               Cone flowers and lilies and more.


     Hummingbirds.
          Butterflies.
               Colors.
                    Scents.

                              HAPPINESS!

     Those who had laughed?
     "It's so BEAUTIFUL," they cried.

     And it was.

     And it will be again.
    And unless, or until, you've experienced this yourself, it's impossible to describe the joy felt inside by the sights and the smells, and the sound of the birds singing sweetly in the trees.

     "That's MY garden," you say.  

     "I planned that.  
     "I planted that."

     Ah!  But you didn't actually make it grow, did you?


     What are your plans now?

     What kinds of seeds are you planting?
     What are your dreams?
     What steps have you taken today towards achieving them?

     Do the work.
          Ignore what others have to say.

                                   SEE BEYOND the DIRT.

          Believe.

               And you will behold the beauty of your dreams bursting forth into bloom.

©2015 Gabriel Strump
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    Author

    Gabriel Strump is a business owner, philosopher, 
    musician, 
    and the author of Vreeland.

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​Official Vreeland Illustrations
by Natalia Starikova
Copyright ©2015 Gabriel Strump
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