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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Born in Celo in
Western NC in
the early forties, I was delivered by my paternal grandfather, Dr. Tom
Fairchild, as the first of four children. We had no electricity, indoor
plumbing, automobile or much money, but we did have a loving family and
close-knit, supportive community. Those years gave me a love for the
mountains and all of nature, along with the awareness that the human
family is one big community. As a small child, I watched and listened
to everything going on around me, noticing how all the
folks –
human or otherwise – who crossed my path left a wonderful
impression on my mind. Somehow I mentally computed every person, tree,
flower, garden, mule, horse and cow - each with a distinct personality.
At age nine I started reading long true-stories in my Mom’s
books. At ten, I started to write short pieces to read to others, and
always made an A+ on them in school. I felt I was born to write, but
having no money and a one-legged dad, I was sure I could never go to
college. Dad died five days before my high school graduation. I married
and left home, taking all my stories and poems with me. At nineteen, I
felt a prompting to write a new story about “the little boy on
the mountain.” From the first moment the stories came easily,
almost fully formed and too fast to capture on paper, while the main
characters quickly became animals. Those early years spent on the
mountain stayed in my mind like a running picture and stories have
flowed from those images for all my years. Each character is alive to
me as if I had birthed them through my own body. Developing, writing
and reading the stories to kids for 40+ years has shown me how little
ones love a life of peace and the unity of a good family. Now I wish to
share these heartfelt stories with everyone. Amazingly, numerous adults
have also sat for hours to listen as I read them, and just like the
kids, begged for more when I stopped. I found that listening to the
wind on a cool autumn day, with the colorful leaves moving in all their
beauty, stirred my heart because it seemed that Nature sang her songs
for me. I felt in tune with the large acres of woods where I made
playhouses out of moss. In summer I pretended daisies were eggs frying
in my make-believe pans. An invisible Spirit spoke to me, and me to it,
all the time. Night found me crying for my mother to get the ladder and
go fetch me the moon. Often, I felt the moon casting an eerie mood over
my soul, keeping her secrets from me, yet holding forth a mystery saved
for a chosen few. My wish at nine years old was to share that mystery.
Darkness of any kind seemed to cast a shadow over my freedom yet I came
to feel, to know, that something was protecting me from harm. Snakes
sunbathed on rocks down by the old barn where I could plainly see them
as I traveled from our little plank house up through a field and the
woods to my grandfather’s old farm house, yet they never bothered
me. A Great Universal Spirit watched over me and became part of my
children’s stories later in life. Imagination in everyone
provides much knowledge when we are willing to search for it. I learned
to meditate and concentrate on the third eye, the center of the
forehead just above the nose, and at times felt inspired by the
knowledge being conveyed: we are all One…brothers and
sisters…moms and dads and grandparents…with the family of
life like a puzzle. We must connect if we want to experience or even
understand this etching of the Great Universal Spirit that makes up the
fabric of all our lives. When each of us makes peace within our own
beings, we will have made peace with all souls and war will never be
necessary again. We have been fighting only our inner Selves. I suspect
most children stories are allegorical. They hold hidden messages that
must be searched for by each personality to gain what they are looking
for in that moment. When we accept the Oneness inherent in all life, we
can see that all folks on earth are born right where they are meant to
be. Life does not make mistakes and OntOnt, the main character in my
stories, loves pointing this out to all who will listen. It is my
belief that Earth is a schoolroom where we learn many lessons about
valuing all life, including all peoples and their customs. When we
begin to hold one another in high regard, we appreciate each soul we
meet because we see ourselves in them; they become a more familiar
light shining on our path. Education gives us knowledge that relieves
the fear of embracing other cultures. Intellect allows us to recognize
our similarities rather than focus on the differences. In the closing
stages of life, many people notice this Oneness for the first time.
Wouldn’t it be better to learn this as we come in? My grandfather
commented on this once, after he had delivered a crying baby, saying
that it made more sense to cry when we come in and rejoice as we go
out, since we are going to revisit our Great Source. Sharing life with
young ones has made me aware of their feelings and just how little it
takes to make someone really happy. Reading stories to little tarts
when they are young gets them to thinking and then pondering
life’s secrets. I know for sure that children never forget the
messages they learn early in life, lying on their beds at night just
before the lights go out and dreaming begins. Like sponges, children
soak up the messages within the stories that made them feel alive, no
matter where or when they heard them. I am delighted and honored to
share OntOnt’s tales with you, and hope only that the message
perceived both delights and inspires everyone you know
to live
more
wisely, from the heart.
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