It was Chesterton, years ago while reading his Orthodoxy, who first really helped me see that we live in a Fairy Tale. The world we live in is fantastic beyond description, but we get dull to it and forget. So we tell each other fairy tales so that we turn again to our world and see it for what it is. Anyhow, I was bow hunting this weekend with my son Blaine and my friend Morgan, high up in the mountains of Colorado. It involves a lot of long hours just sitting still and being quiet in the woods. Which is a beautiful time for taking in the world again.

Saturday morning Blaine and I were poised over a water hole, on the edge of a dark forest, and I was watching dragon flies cruising around the little pond. They look like miniature biplanes. Blaine nudges me, shows me a tiny lime green inch worm on his hand. Really now, dragon flies? Inch worms? Who would have thought of this? You could not have made this world up, it is so amazing. This world is fairy tale through and through.

Anyhow, a squirrel runs down the branch of a tree we are sitting under, and makes it clear he doesn’t like us being there. I sort of shoo him off and for five minutes all is silent. Then one by one, missiles start raining down from above. Thwack. Thwack. Like artillery. The squirrel is in the top of the 30 foot fir tree, throwing hard cones down on us. I kid you not. This goes on for about five minutes, all still silent, but the missiles coming in. He finally hits Blaine, and at the very moment bursts out in chatter, is if he were laughing. I think he was. Fairy Tale. How did I not see it before?