Magical Parenting: An Interview with Bryonie Arnold
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Today I’m excited to share a special interview with you all. Bryonie Arnold, owner, creator, and proprietor of The Fernie Brae, is a dear friend of mine. In this interview, she talks about her own childhood, and how she encourages her son to believe in his own magic.
In 2018 and 2019, I went to visit Portland, Oregon and spent some lovely time with Bryonie and her family (and my magical friend Shveta Thakrar, with whom I went in 2019!)
On these trips, I’ve had the occasion to meet Bryonie’s son, Oliver, and to see what a wonderful, imaginative, and fey-touched child he is!
So when I was pondering topics to discuss for blog posts, I immediately thought of how wonderful it would be to talk to Bryonie about how to parent a child as someone who believes in wonder, but also wants their child to be free to be whoever they want to be….whoever they are.
Bryonie’s son is incredibly imaginative, and creatively expressive. He spends a lot of his time around people in the Faerie and Mythic Arts scenes, but this kid also loves pirates and superheroes and getting dirty and having fun and running around. In other words, he’s a kid!
But Oliver also has a family that is very aware of the magical energies that flow around all of us, and exist in nature. And this thread winds through his life, even from when he was still in the womb.
His parents take him on adventures sometimes to places that have inspired poets and artists for centuries.
He has met and hung out with faerie beings since before he was born as well. (Pictured here, he’s with Digby from Lessons Learned by Toby Froud)
His mom takes him on daily adventures, and also follows him on the adventures he might create for the family as well, whether it be a picnic, or a journey to a make-believe world.
And she creates little moments of wonder for him as well. Pictured here is a tiny book from the faeries of their chimney that Bryonie mentions in her interview.
And here he is receiving a letter from Dumbledore, complete with a phoenix feather from Fawkes.
Bryonie has many suggestions in her interview on how to foster the spirit of wonder that all children are born with, and keep it kindled and burning. But I wanted to mention a company whose work I recently discovered on Instagram. Fairytale Post creates letters from fictional characters that you can send to your kids to help them dream bigger and see that “If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.” (Richard Bach)
I am not sponsored by Fairytale Post, I just love what they do, and I think they fit the feeling of what Bryonie does as well. In their own words, “The Fairytale Post sends snail mail from fairytale and storybook characters. There are no fill-in-the-blank templates. We at the Fairytale Post will work together with you to create a letter that will uniquely touch the soul of its recipient. Whether it’s birthday greetings, encouragement through a difficult time, or a celebration of the simple joys that your child brings each day, the handwritten letter will have quaint, personal touches unique to whichever character is writing.
We want to remind children that there is goodness and wonder in the world. Through fairytales, children experience again and again the indisputable fact that while things may look grim, in the end good will triumph over evil. We also want to give you a beautiful keepsake for this precious time in your child’s life, when their favorite place is in your lap with a good book, exploring a new land in the steadiness of your arms.”
Details matter to Fairytale Post. (Not sponsored, I just love what they do!)
Order a letter from your child’s favorite animal, even a Hippogriff, from Fairytale Post.
I’d love to hear stories about how you encourage wonder and imagination in your own children!
I recently discovered that I’ve been accidentally leaving “comments” off my blog posts, but that is now fixed, and you should be able to share below.
