Let your magic brighten your world

Slow down to rediscover what gives you wonder, delight, and meaning

As I return from a long weekend, along with most of those who live in the United States, I think it is safe to assume that in this short week, we all may be running short on time. Therefore this week’s post will be short, and hopefully, thought provoking.

Here we are on the cusp of summer, as we near the longest day of the year. The world is awe inspiring to me at right now because I am a sun lover and a water baby type of person, so this is my hopeful season. I love the growing of green things under a bold blue sky. I love dandelion fluff on the wind and the sound of birds. I love the gentle rock of a boat in waves.

On Saturday night I sat on a beach as the sun went down, surrounded by friends, new and old. On Sunday I jumped into a cold lake for the first time this season and swam to a far out rock.

To me this is magic.

What is magic to you?

Take the time to slow down and notice. Soak it up. Moment by moment, the world shows us it’s alive — and we’re alive — and that we’re a part of it, us messy humans.

Most tasks can wait longer than we think. Most jobs are smaller than we make them out to be in our minds. Many items on that long to-do list don’t even really need to be done.

Let your magic spread across the shoulds and musts and don’ts and impossibles and see if it doesn’t just recolor, reprioritize, and reduce the seeming import of the truly unimportant.

Here’s a bit of wonderful, foolish, and tremendously useful advice on finding your magic, from poet Shel Silverstein.

MAGIC

Sandra’s seen a leprechaun,

Eddie touched a troll,

Laurie danced with witches once,

Charlie found some goblin’s gold.

Donald heard a mermaid sing,

Susy spied and elf,

But all the magic I have known

I’ve had to make myself.

-Shel Silverstein

Here’s a quick way to access the part of yourself most in tune with wonder and joy:

Looking back to childhood, what memories still hold a spark of magic? Which was the first to come to mind? Close your eyes and experience that memory once again.

• What were the sensations of the moment?

• What did you smell, hear, taste, see, and feel?

• What were your emotions and how did they create sensation in your body?

• What did your imagination run away with? What did it invite in?

• What great and wondrous thing felt just out of reach, but so full of possibility that you could burst?

Now, holding this memory in mind, how can you incorporate elements of those feelings, imaginings, and possibilities today to reignite a sense of wonder?

XO

-Marisol

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I’m seeking to re-humanize our hectic, exhausting modern lives by tracing ways to grow that are not through striving, but through a gentle deepening. We need to get back in touch with our own human needs and step away from the robotic quest for achievement and the culture of more, more, more.

Let’s create a community. I’m grateful for your help.