Hidden from view

I then found a small old wooden box which my daughter used to love.

The box was her favourite when she was little, and she used to keep so many treasures in there that she collected from the bush. It has a beautiful butterfly painting on the lid.

There were heart shaped rocks and dry pressed flowers, feathers and crystalised tree sap which she used to call fairy jewels.

But most importantly of all she kept hand written letters that she used to receive from her fairy friends!

When she was little we used to live by a running creek in the bush, where there were many bush fairies around. Every few days she would write letters to fairies on dry leaves and pieces of bark and put them in her little fairy house outside near our veggie garden. She then received a returned letter from the fairies the next morning!

She was fully communicating with them in the early morning and at dusk, hours and hours.. Singing and chatting away she would journey into their little world. Only they could see and hear each other...

This happened for many years until we had to move closer to the city, where it was more convenient for our busy lives.

My daughter had a new room and old things were packed into boxes.

She wrote a few more letters to the new City fairies and put them in the new smaller garden to see if anyone was there, but she never received a reply.

Overtime, as she grew older and slowly stepped away from that childhood land, the fairies became a distant memory as her interests changed to other things.

My daughter never did ask if it was really just us writing the letters back to her....

I wonder if she will ask one day....?

Until that day comes, I will keep this treasure box tucked away in a safe place.. Hidden from view, but forever close to my heart.