“Fairies unite! Fairies unite!” my friend Janette exclaimed as I approached her cottage door. We both felt this was going to be a very special day. We invited our friend, Lorna, to come with us to experience one of our favorite nature spots on the Big Sur coast. Joy and laughs were in the air from our anticipation of sharing our secret place with our dear friend.

Our intention for the day was to make a flower essence from one of my favorite plants, Mountain Sorrel. Also we wanted to have fun and enjoy a picnic with special foods. Lorna baked cakes that were inspirational. Her carrot cake with cream cheese and pumpkin seed frosting was otherworldly and just the ticket for our experiences to come.

Janette and I loved this trail so much that we often asked each other, “Why don’t we come here more often?” All these years later I have realized that it always was such a sacred event that the spirit of place, the fairies, and elves, plants, flowers, birds, insects, butterflies and animals were calling us for a celebration with them. I feel they gave us these experiences because they knew we loved them.

We always packed a special, though simple, lunch with treats for the fairies. I made my best special Chai, with extra cardamom and pure spring water, cream and honey. I also made scones. Lorna brought what I have come to call her “miracle cake.” Janette and I brought honey, berries and chocolate for the fairies. We also brought our crystals and a jar of pure water to make the flower essence.

As we arrived at the trailhead we paused to take in the day. The ocean breeze was cool, and there was still a marine layer of fog, though we hoped the sun would break through. We had come to have an awareness, after many years of visiting, that this beginning of our one-mile hike was important. Each time, different nature friends would greet us and set the tone for the day.

Our first greeter was a lizard. This put a smile on my face, because lizards are totems of “dream time.” We had dreamed this day, so it was bound to be good. Our joyful anticipation was building.

Our next visitors were three soaring red tail hawks who would travel with us the entire way up the trail, and since hawks are spiritual messengers we smiled again. We had developed a habit of walking quietly so we could be in the wonder of it all but also in reverence that we were guests in the home of many beings seen and unseen.

Several more of our favorite creatures visited us along the way. Janette’s favorite, a blue dragonfly; my favorites, hundreds of lady bugs; a couple of blue and white butterflies; bunnies; and meadow larks and many more lizards. Very fragrant wild flowers, sweet yellow and purple lupine, monkey flowers, fire brush and mountain sage perfumed the air.

We arrived at our special spot, which was off the beaten trail so we had it to ourselves with all of nature. First the sun broke through the redwoods and made that rare occurrence of the “rays,” as Janette called them. That moment where the fog lifts, leaving a slight cool breeze with the sun shining through the redwoods with warmth and that golden light. We all felt that we were in heaven.

We had our glorious picnic and found just the right places for our gifts for the Fairies and were ready to take a little rest before making the flower essences. We were primed by being slightly in the “in-between time” to be sensitive to the over lighting Deva and Fairy of the Mountain Sorrel. In this spot, the hillside was covered with these sweet white flowers.

Lorna exclaimed, “I saw a Leprechaun!” She described the red pointed hat he was wearing and blue trousers. I saw the movement as he hid behind the redwood tree. Wow. Lorna was trained as an administrator, with use of her very logical mind, and this was quite a departure for her. We all walked quietly to the flowers and started to pinch off a few with our crystals. Lorna started putting the lid on when the jar started singing. We all looked at each other and around us to see where the singing was coming from and not from someone’s radio. The singing was coming from our jar of flower essences. Wow. We laughed and laughed.

The next unusual thing came as we hiked back to the car; Lorna started singing a hymn that she had learned in Sunday School, and Janette and I joined in singing all of the words even though we had never heard the song before. That whole day contained unbridled joy. We laughed, sang and hugged and kept asking ourselves, “How did that happen?” Magic.

With the love of nature, Your own magical Fairy encounters are just waiting for you when you least expect them. They can occur possibly in your backyard garden or sitting next to your favorite house plant. Don’t forget to put out the chocolate.

Love, Nina