Elves and Fairies dancing in the meadow under a ….doc

Elves and Fairies dance in the meadow under a moonlit sky, flowers tower overhead, and dragonflies provide transportation and fireflies radiate illumination; magic is everywhere. My childhood world was filled with such images, through books, acted out in the real fields and yards where idle hours were spent among the weeds and wildflowers, peeling the pods to see them curl on the ground suddenly let loose of their unripe restraints, or making daisy chains, or plucking petals, eager to learn their inner secrets. When someone in the neighborhood found a chrysalis hanging from a leaf stalk, it was a bonanza. These treasures were carefully tended so that the miracle of metamorphosis could be experienced by all who were young enough to appreciate its majesty. Even before these days of freewheeling wandering, there was Aunt Ann’s house, shrouded in history and mystery. Aunt Ann was the grand dame, our own southern belle who still hung her confederate flag in a house that was more of a museum than a home. She was no relation at all, but a very dear and very eccentric friend of my mother’s family. Upstairs, if you could get permission to climb the back stairs, were rooms once used to house families displaced by WWII. The furnishings dated back to the Civil War. Downstairs, the furnishings displayed elegance of days long gone and created a world of fantasy and visual delight. Eccentricity was the greatest of understatements, Aunt Ann’s world was frozen, captured by the past; she wondered out loud how could our family possibly support that Kennedy person for president? And how possibly could my father raise two young children without a mother? In those days it was unthinkable, but people died even then. So our visits changed, but still there were lazy summer days on that on the porch that spanned the entire width of the house, back and forth, the rhythm of the squeaky chain held wooden swing which had already soothed several generations of visitors, children and lovers. An