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And I wanted to share it with you guys because without you it wouldn't have been possible.

Two or three days ago I finally solved one of the Japanese koans that are my life. It's hard to explain, but it had something to do with getting out of my own way, stop trying to do something, and just doing it. That probably makes no sense in words, but it did to my brain. Suddenly certain things that just hadn't been making any sense to me, did. I felt like I'd just gotten a third of my personality back, or something. And it happened because I kept feeling like I wasn't able to communicate very well with people here (even Natalie, who has got to be the most diplomatic person on the planet.) That forced me to worry at that koan until it was resolved. After it was, somehow I was finally able to admit out loud what I was really doing here, and then it was like having been stuck in a small box, taking a deep breath and wriggling around, and finally fitting into the box.

Anyway, that isn't the bit about faeries, it just made the bit about fairies possible. The bit about faeries is: I finally decided to do something I'd thought about doing but just hadn't – going into the backyard, explaining to any fae back there exactly what I wanted to do with this project of mine, and seeing if they thought it was a good idea and might be willing to help out. ( This isn't the Three Sisters garden, this is something else, the thing that needs me to have a ton of info.) Anyway, it seems like at least some of them think it is a good idea.

Last night when I was lying in bed trying to sleep (I'm a horrible insomniac, so it always takes a long time), I felt something sort of messing with my energy in a very particular way. It almost felt like hands moving wires around in my head, or something, and it felt like the idea was being given to me that since in the backyard we'd all realized that I couldn't hear them well enough to really figure out if I was talking to someone else, or just having a running dialogue with myself in my head… (Yes, I know what I've said about that elsewhere, but for what I'm doing I need to be as sure as I possibly can)… well, anyway, they'd decided to come and try to fix my audio wiring a little to clear the signal some. I thought this was a great idea, and tried not to get in their way. (I suck at that. I'm too curious. If a healer is moving energy in me, I always want to “watch” and be a general nuisance that way. I think I was also a nuisance last night.^^) After a while the messing about stopped.

And now I get to tell you the really cool part of this. Three things happened. The first: I heard a pleasant, male voice say “Good day to you!” in a sort of tapping the microphone, “is this thing on?” kind of way. I didn't hear it with my ears, just my brain; but it came to me in actual English, instead of just as a concept/idea. I *know* I don't think to myself out loud in English that way.

The second was, as I was getting sleepy enough to have trouble moving my limbs, I heard a buzzing sound like a bumblebee flying straight for my face, loud enough to make me flinch. (I've tried to warn any fae around my house not to dive-bomb me, and explained why. I keep hearing that they like to turn into insects or something and do that, and I have combat reflexes. I'd really hate to accidentally hurt anyone.) Anyway, I wasn't awake enough to actually swat anyone down, so next thing I know I'm feeling this little pressure on my cheek, like someone is sitting there.

Now, sometimes when I'm in a state that is close to half asleep and my eyes are closed, I can see pictures behind my eyelids, like a photograph or a painting. They just fade in and out, usually pretty quickly, so that all I'm really left with is an impression of what it looked like and was about. I got two visual impressions while feeling the pressure on my cheek – one, a small, winged fae – about the size of the aforementioned bumblebee, and I *think* female, but she was glowing too brightly to make out any details other than the outline of her shape. I think she was showing me herself. And then I had another picture, of a couple of really tiny little…

Ok, I have to admit something here. I hate “cute”, at least when it's being applied to something that I feel ought to earn feelings of respect. Nobody respects things that are cute. They love them, but they don't respect them.

But…god help me, these little guys were cute. There's just no way around that. They were tiny, maybe the size of your thumb, or so, and their heads were bigger in proportion to their bodies than an adult human's are. They looked almost like tiny thumb-babies, except I'm sure they were grown up. They were standing underneath a small, sprouting plant. One of them was kneeling at the base of the sprout like he/she/it was doing something to help it grow. And they were wearing clothes – nothing fancy, just rather plain, peasant sort of clothes. I think the fairy on my cheek was trying to show me another one of the kinds of fae that are around our place.

Curious, I tried to ask (mentally) whether such tiny people made those clothes themselves. I didn't hear the answer verbally like I did with the “good day” remark, but got the impression that no, the little guys didn't make the clothes, but got them from the larger fairies who did make them in exchange for work they did in helping grow the plants that got turned into clothing. (And probably help with other kinds of plants too, I'd think. Sounds like a pretty fair arrangement to me.)

By that point it was getting really late at night, and I was supposed to be at work next (this, actually) morning. But honestly, I couldn't get to sleep. I don't think I've been excited quite like that since I was a kid before Christmas. Well, in one of the other threads we'd been talking about how to thank fae, and Lisa had made me realize that I ought to try the 'setting out some wine' thing again. So I'd set out the very last of the brandy in our house for them on the table beside my bed. Now, I know this isn't a great thing to do, but when you've got to be at work in just a few hours and you're desperate for some sleep…well, I thought a little bit of alcohol might at least make me stop thinking about everything so vividly, at least enough to be able to go to sleep. I didn't get any offended feelings from around me when I thought and asked about this, so I went ahead and had the last little bit of brandy…and BLEUGH. It was like drinking flat soda pop! So it looks like they'd already had their share, lol. No wonder they didn't mind. ^^ It did help me finally get to sleep though…at least, for an hour or so before I had to get up again. And now I know they like brandy, lol! I think I've just found a choice offering.

There's a last part to this tale. When I had to wake up again, I heard my cat coming into my bedroom and towards the bed. Just before she jumped up onto the bed I heard a male voice (tenor in pitch, I think) near me (again, I didn't actually hear anything, just an actual word in my head) say “Hello!” like he was greeting my kitty.

Today I've been hearing some oddly rhythmic creaking noises coming from the attic over my bedroom. And a sound like a big insect buzzing around the house. It all feels pretty friendly, though.

I think, if you want to really make contact with fae, maybe it's a good idea to come to them with an idea they like? At least it gives you something to talk about, lol! ^_^

Anyway, I hope this isn't just a fluke and that my audio circuits don't get all jammed up again. Maybe someday I'll even get to really see these guys, too. I'd like to see this be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

I think you're right Lisa, the fae do sense what we need and, if we are open minded enough to recieve it, often will try to give it to us. :)

I guess my issues with "cute" sort of stem from my Mom, for whom it was a favourite word when I was growing up. Everything to her was "cute", even things that really should have inspired a different feeling. Maybe her vocabulary just isn't big enough, lol. But I do know how being treated as someone who got no respect felt. So I guess what I really want to do is find a way to explain guys like those without inspiring other people to feel like the big, red monster in the Bugs Bunny cartoons: "Ooh, a pet bunny rabbit! I will love him and hug him and squeeze him, and call him George!" You know what I mean, I hope. I think little guys like that are the Mickey Rooney of the fae set. ;)

I hope your friends liked the elderberry wine! What kind of pizza do you find they like best?

Wow Athidal, I'm speechless That is truly awesome (in the literally sense of the word, not the appropriated slang).

Did the fae that you saw look like humans, or more like the Brian Froud or Spiderwick artwork? I really hope I can foster a connection like that with the fae. And I know what you mean by the kōan stuff XD good job!

(Not to side track your thread, I'm just hoping you have advice: Do you know of a good substitute for alcohol? I don't drink at all — hence not having any– but I wouldn't want to offend them by leaving out something they deemed poor quality or just gross… I have heard milk a bunch of times, so I'm just wondering is there a hierarchy to beverages?)

I can't wait to hear what happens next! Please keep us posted @_@

So, no meat to the pizza. That makes sense. Got ya. :)

The fae I saw looked a lot more like work by Brian Froud, or Charles Vess, than anything else. (Maybe thats why I've always loved their work so much.) I was also shown another type of guy who looked almost like a plant, and when I asked a few questions, I got the impression that there are a lot of fae who…well, how can I put this? Humans are animals. Fae are animals. We're all animals. If you've ever looked around and noticed how many kinds of *four footed* animals there are compared with how many *two footed* ones, and wondered where all the rest of the two-footed ones went…well, I think now we can figure it out. I mean, not everyone in the fae realm is two-footed, obviously. Unicorns, for example. But I think most two-feet are probably sentient to at least some capacity, and that a lot of the sentient ones moved to faerie. And we've all got our different niches in the ecology, so we all have different natural adaptations that make us look different, exactly the same way a moose doesn't look like a duck.

I think Lisa's right, juice is probably a good substitute. Milk would probably be ok too, there's a lot of precedent for that (as you mentioned). I'll try to remember to ask for you later. I'd ask now, but I'm still pretty drained and shaky at the moment – I'll explain that below.

Nothing much happened last night, mostly because I needed a night to recover from running a day on one hour of sleep. That's a rough day, lemme tell ya. So it seemed like a good idea to try to make some arrangements to try and schedule things with the fae a bit better, since I really want to hear what they've got to say, but my boss at work sometimes needs me, too. And since it seems like fae have a different sense of time than humans – ie, one more akin to the way Native Americans and Aborigines do, it seemed like a good idea to set up a simple system which would let them know if it is ok to visit me at night like that. I have this unique little glass perfume bottle, so I asked them if they could see it. (Just to make sure, you know.) It felt that they could, so we set it up that if the perfume bottle is sitting on my dresser when I go to bed, it's not a good night to talk. If it's on my headboard instead, then it's a good night to talk. Simple, easy to remember, and hopefully it'll do the trick. Last night I left the perfume bottle on the dresser, and had a pretty uninterrupted night. Just to let them know I really wasn't trying to wimp out on them though, I set out a little sake cup with brandy in it. It was flat this morning.

There's just been a development though, and actually I'm still a little weak and shaky from it. Apparantly word's getting around. I was trying to draw on paper one of the leafy-guy types of fae, and suddenly I got this really sleepy feeling. It was like someone forcefully taking over my television station with their own private broadcast. And I then had to Explain Myself to someone who, while not a rabid human-hater, was somewhat incensed and really wasn't sure my idea was a good one. So I had to explain in more detail what I want to do and why I thought it would work, and then basically invited him to be on my Board of Directors to help keep me honest, since he cared enough to come and talk to me (even if he did basically barge through my door). I think we've got a tentative agreement now, but I also know that I've got to work especially hard to do things the right way. :)

I have extra respect for Susan now. Channelling Mr. E for periods of time as long as she does must be really, really tiring.