Plants And The Fey Folk

As is taught in Miss Linette Pelletier's Botanics class (1), there is a very tight-knit relationship between the flora and the Fey. Transcribing the teacher's notes would take too long here, but I can give you a brief look at a couple of Morgan's notes (in no specific order besides alphabetical):

• Four-Leafed Clover: To use to see the Fey folk when they are trying to make themselves invisible to you (by manipulating the electromagnetic field and light around them--it's not like they do become invisible).
• Lily of the Valley: To be avoided at all costs for the Fey use this flower to entice the unwary. But its sweet scent is but a disguise for the poison that lies beneath it and is sure to kill you within three days.
• Saint John's Wort: Excellent Fey-repellent, though doesn't work against the higher-order Sidhe (but it may give the a rash or make them prone to intense sneezing bouts).
• Water Lily: may help reduce or even heal a particular sickness given to you by the Fey folk that turns one to stone (aka paralyzes them completely). To be used with moderation, or you may find your body melting off your bones instead.

As you, I'm sure, in no way doubt, there are many other plants which can be just as dangerous, while others prove to be very useful or even beneficial. It is why Miss Pelletier works so closely with Dr. Cockleburr, the later being always in search of the latest anti-poisons and other remedies against the Fey and their enchantments.

The best would be, of course, to avoid the Fey altogether (they are fickle by nature and quite resentful of our having taken the Earth back from their control, so are prone to helping us find our demise...as long as there is no knight around, of course). So should you see any flowers that presage their presence (1), simply turn around and walk back the way you came from. Better be safe than sorry, right?

Notes:
(1) See Rise of the Fey

Immortality

Just Three Little Letters: Y.E.S.

Today, I'm still going to rave to you about how great Creative Thinkering is by talking about an important concept mentioned in the book:

The power of thinking "YES!"

I don't know how many of you remember much of your time as a wee child, but if you can get your mind to go back that far, you may remember that, in those days, nothing seemed impossible!
Needed to fit those blocks into the appropriate holes? We wouldn't stop working on that till they were finally all in!
Needed to get on top of our parents' bed? We kept climbing up those covers until we finally found ourselves nestled between them!
Wanted to get those cookies? We kept finding ways to climb the furniture to get to them (or figure the easiest way to get someone else to bring them to you...like crying your lungs out)!

And that optimism lasted until adults started beating it into our heads that we couldn't do it, that we'd never would make it (whatever it might have been). As Michalko put it: Children, before they become educated, speak a different language, a language of inclusion, a language of "what is" and "what can be." That's very different from what many of us adults automatically say, such as  "I never would have thought of that," or "Not a bad insight."

However, should we choose to relinquish our defeatist or unenthusiastic attitude and revert to that happy outlook you had when a child, all you have to do is change your vocabulary into a positive one! Because "all language, feelings, and thoughts interact with each other, and the entire accumulation of those influences creates your output and behavior," so by changing the way you speak, "your thoughts and feelings will be changed as well" and you'll generally feel better and more upbeat :)