Have you ever had one of those days when your head feels like it’s floating somewhere above your shoulders, your thoughts have wandered off without adult supervision, and you’re not quite sure whether you’re coming or going?
Well, welcome to my world today. Apparently, I’m feeling a little airy-fairy!
It’s such a delightful expression. It conjures up images of a delicate woodland fairy skipping through the meadow, scattering fairy dust and wondering where she’s left her car keys.
Unfortunately, my particular fairy tale was slightly less enchanting.
Since my car accident, I’ve been living with neck pain 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My neck and I are no longer on speaking terms, although it insists on reminding me of its existence every waking minute.
Today, the pain decided its usual performance wasn’t dramatic enough and shot through the roof. My blood pressure followed, my heart rate climbed to 102 beats per minute, and my heart began pounding so loudly I could hear it in my head and practically feel it trying to escape through my chest.
Not quite the magical experience I’d imagined!
Naturally, I began frantically scratching around for painkillers, looking rather like a desperate squirrel searching for its last buried acorn.
Enter my son Jackson. The nurse. My very own Florence Nightingale.
His expert medical advice?
“Go and lie down, Mum, drink some water. And wait.”
Wait? WAIT FOR WHAT?
Divine intervention? A miracle? The pain fairy to arrive with a complimentary neck replacement?
Well, who knew? All these years of medical advancement, and the answer was lying horizontally and having a drink of water. Thank goodness for university degrees!
To be fair, resting and hydrating were sensible suggestions, although I’m still waiting for someone to explain how water negotiates with an angry cervical spine.
While contemplating my predicament, I discovered the wonderful meaning of airy-fairy.
According to the dictionary, it can mean delicate, light and fairylike. Wonderful! I’ll happily accept that description.
Unfortunately, there’s another meaning.
Someone who isn’t quite ‘with it’, lives in their own dreamland, is rather absent-minded and occasionally appears to have misplaced their brain.
Well, that’s less flattering! Does sound like me today though.
Interestingly, the expression originated in 1830, when Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote ‘Airy, fairy Lilian’ in his poem Lilian.
How romantic! These days, someone calling you airy-fairy probably means you’ve walked into the kitchen three times and still can’t remember why.
Nevertheless, I’m embracing my inner fairy today.
Admittedly, she’s a little battered, has a very cranky neck, an overenthusiastic heartbeat and a son who apparently believes a glass of water is the eighth wonder of the medical world.
But she’s still got her sense of humour.
And if anyone asks why I’m looking a little vague, I’ll simply smile sweetly and say –
‘I’m not losing the plot, I’m just a little airy-fairy!’
Now, where did I put my wings?
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