High Hopes

During our fairy birthday parties at CreativeWorks, children enter a room filled with giant flowers, colorful butterflies, twinkling lights, and shimmering balloons. It’s a magical setting, and especially magical for the birthday girl. Upon entering the room for the first time, one birthday girl said to me, “I think I’m going to fall down!” (as in faint).

Little girls dance about in fluttery skirts and gossamer wings, and delight in their journey to Fairyland. During the course of one of the fairy parties, I was releasing rocket balloons (which fly all around the room, and often end up stuck somewhere in the rafters of our 14-foot ceiling). When one of the balloons got stuck, one of the little fairies said with all seriousness,

“I will get it.” She peered up at the balloon, lodged some 12 feet above her. She then began making flapping motions with her arms while uttering small grunts and jumping a few inches off of the ground. After a few attempts, she looked at me, shrugged, and said,

“I can’t do it.”

A few minutes later, during a different party activity, we sprinkled fairy dust onto the wings of the fairies. It was shortly after this that I noticed the little girl go back to the same spot, and make another attempt at flight. She didn’t tell anyone what she was doing, she was just earnestly flapping away, and eventually, she gave up.

Sigh. A lesson learned. Part of growing up is experiencing a series of letdowns. Too bad fairy dust doesn’t work after all…