A little girl walked into my Master's shop today. She wore a smile and had a blue ribbon around her waist. Hand in hand with her mother, she gazed around the room. Then, she saw me on the blue dreamcatcher.

“Mom, I want that one,” she said, pointing at the blue dreamcatcher. I looked at my Master and he nodded, taking the dreamcatcher down and placing it into a box.

“Just let me go and get a ribbon for the box,” he said, taking the box and hurrying off into the back room where he blessed the dreamcatcher.

“You are to keep this little girl from harm,” he told me and knew I would obey. After placing the ribbon on the box, I was taken to my new home. The little girl's mother took the dreamcatcher out of the box and hung it on the light which hung from the middle of the ceiling.

Later that night, I floated down to see the little girl. The room was lit by a dim light.

“Hello Lily,” I said shyly. Lily smiled at me. She knew who I was as she had seen me many times before in the little fairy shop. Patiently, I told Lily that I was going to protect her from bad dreams and harm. Later that night and for the first time, Lily's dreams were as peaceful as the smile on her face, Years went by and each night I would float down to talk to my Mistress.

One night, I floated down and landed on her pillow. I spoke to Lily, but she didn't hear me. I tried to touch her, but she felt nothing. In my horror, I realized that Lily had lost the creative imagination she had as a child. Weeks earlier, Lily would tell me that I was becoming too light to see anymore. Now, I am invisible to the girl who has been my Mistress for 10 years. I remembered the order my previous Master gave me, and I was going to keep on protecting this little girl from harm.

The story of the dreamcatcher is one I made up from imagination. A dreamcatcher comes in many colors, shapes and sizes. The one I have is a dark blue color with feathers. In the middle, I have placed a pink flower to add another dimension to my dreamcatcher.

A dreamcatcher is an inanimate form of the word “spider” and means “dream snare.” It is hand made and based in a willow hoop. A net or a web is woven onto the hoop and decorated with personal and sometimes scared items. The most common ones are decorated with feathers.

According to Terri J. Andrews: "Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through. Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day."Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper.

Natives say that dreamcatchers are not meant to last forever. They should dry out and collapse as a child enters the age of adulthood. While I have had my dreamcatcher for a few years, it is now hanging against my wall and I still believe it protects me from bad dreams. Many people have dreamcatchers as decorations without really knowing what they mean.

“A dreamcatcher is like a funnel. It lets the good dreams through and blocks the big, bad dreams from entering.” - Ashley McGrillen.