Woodland Folklore

Here are a few lines I've found scattered around the internet.

Thomas the Rhymer, the famous thirteenth century Scottish mystic and poet, once met the Faery Queen by a hawthorn bush from which a cuckoo was calling. She led him into the Faery Underworld for a brief sojourn, but upon reemerging into the world of mortals he found he had been absent for seven years. Themes of people being waylaid by the faery folk to places where time passes differently are common in Celtic mythology, and the hawthorn was one of, if not the, most likely tree to be inhabited or protected by the Wee Folk.

The Woodland Folk

Do you ever take a long, long walk in the deep woods all alone? Can you smell the trees and the flowers that bloom almost any time of the spring, summer and early autumn? Do you love the solitude with nothing but nature all around you? The peacefulness?

If you ever do, take some time to stop… find a rock or an old stump and sit awhile. Just listen to the birds. Maybe you’ll see a rabbit scampering or squirrel climbing along a limb. Or maybe, if you’re very quiet and still, a deer may pass close by you barely paying you heed.

Listen to the old trees with their huge branches creaking in the wind. Watch their leaves flutter and twist on their stems. Wait long enough until the forest creatures get used to you… and the birds will stop chattering, warning the others that a human is in the midst of their quiet home.

Slowly, very slowly, they’ll accept your presence. And all will be calm again, just as though you weren’t there.

Wait a bit longer and you may find yourself enrapt in reverie. Breathe the fresh, oxygenated air deep into your lungs and relax. Find yourself daydreaming. It’s alright.

Watch the ants creep along the forest floor and see the little spider mites waft in the breeze suspended only by the gossamer strands of silk they’ve let out of their spinnerets to lower themselves from their treetop homes to the ground below.

And if you can convince them all that you’ve come not to harm them, but merely to be one with them, maybe they’ll accept you. And when they do, all nature will understand your gracefulness and friendliness and tell the others who live there too.

The others? Oh, you know who they are. The ones you don’t see with your mundane eyes. The ones you don’t sense with your busy mind. But the little forest creatures know them very well. They understand more than we humans do. They have the sixth sense of knowing what is so hard for us to know.

And if you’re silent, think pleasant thoughts and let your mind wander, you may see them too. And if you do, don’t tell a soul! Just keep it to yourself, it’s between you and them and take heart in knowing… knowing something others don’t.

Smile and feel good inside for they’ve blessed you with their revelation.