Is there a fairy trapped beneath your skin? Time to let her out.

Last night I dreamed there was a fairy trapped beneath my skin.
Or perhaps she was a pixie.

Having knocked my hand against a doorway I was hiding behind — literally, crouching at the threshold, ignoring my playful impulse to step through — my skin started to bubble. I watched in horror as it grew and grew and was shocked to see the reason.

There was a fairy trapped in there. She was struggling to move and breathe. She was clearly distressed.

A better metaphor for trapped creativity and playfulness, you will not find. (Thank you brain).

In the next moment she was gone, and my hand began to bleed. I tried to be calm as I took care of the wounds she’d left behind when she’d freed herself finally. I surveyed the damage. My fingertips had disappeared and had begun growing back.

—

This is a FIRST draft.

I am not rewriting it in any way.

I have in fact written this directly onto the website and will press publish as soon as I am done.

Sometimes, you have to let the fairy pixie creature within you fly free, or she’ll escape of her own accord.

—

Back to the metaphor.

It was clear to me on waking that this dream was deeply significant instruction on the nature of thresholds.

Here I was sitting at a literal doorway, hiding behind it.

There was a party of four on the other side taking a photo.

I suppressed the urge to jump in and photo bomb them. I wanted to be polite.

Still the playfulness bubbled beneath my skin. Turning into a fairy who broke out of her own accord, disrupting matters quite severely.

The fairy beneath your skin will want out regardless of how you try to hide her to fit in.

—-

Thresholds are like this. Stepping through can seem dangerous.

Going back feels impossible.

So, there you crouch at the doorway looking through, wondering if you have the courage to make yourself visible, to let your magic out.

I started this unusual post by asking whether YOU have a fairy beneath your skin — magic that you’re not allowing to breathe, something you’re keeping hidden that wants to come out? But I already know the answer to that.

The answer is almost definitely YES whether you know she’s there or not.

The answer isn’t to polish her, try to control her, put her through AI to get a cleaner, more sanitised version of yourself that sounds and looks like everyone else. And it’s not about trying to fit within the confines of the way other people move through the world.

In the overly controlled bureaucratic nightmares that are the modern workplace, we have trained ourselves to mistrust our own genius.

Sometimes the answer isn’t more polish, it’s less.

Sometimes to cross the threshold, you have to free your magic before it is perfect.

In fact, you must trust it, even if it feels a little out of control. Even if it makes loud noises and causes others to raise their eyebrows.

There’s almost certainly some form of metaphorical fairy beneath your skin.

Perhaps its time to let her out.