The Magic of Everyday Life

Today is March 27th, 2020 … the date is important because at this moment in time, the whole world is having a communal experience, for better or worse, due to the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. I had been working on a draft of this, “Magic of Everyday Life” post for what seems like years. In actuality, I started it late last year and never got around to finishing it. Now that just last month somehow seems like 5 years ago and with newfound motivation to write about what’s been bouncing around my mind, here we are and I think now more than any other time, we could all do with a little magic.

When your whole world changes, your whole world changes.

Last February, my area was hit with a freakish snowstorm that basically shut society as we knew it down for, at minimum, 48 hours. The power was out, the closest cell tower was down. Shops and restaurants in town were limping along on emergency power or had closed down completely. In the span of a matter of hours, life and society had changed. Little did I know, it was a bit of a trial run for things to come.

The important piece of information about basically being stuck at home with no power and no cell reception, is that it gives you a lot of time to pause, to think, and to appreciate. Not that I don’t do these things when normal life is happening, it’s just easier when it’s not.

So here we all are now…on lockdown, in quarantine, or “sheltering in place” across the globe and I’m actually seeing a lot of what I call the magic of everyday life. Allow me to explain …

What is magic?

Magic has a thousand and one definitions. For my purposes here, let’s go with this one:

magic |’majik’|
noun

A quality that makes something seem removed from everyday life, especially in a way that gives delight … something that has a delightfully unusual quality.

It’s very close to enchantment, actually — the state of being under a spell; magic: a world of mystery and enchantment. In fact, I often see the two as almost interchangeable with these definitions.

So now that we have that squared away, let’s proceed as I broaden that definition to actually include everyday life.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

With a nod to Charles Dickens, it seems this phrase encompases the weird state many of us have found ourselves in lately. This is the part of this story that I had not written last year.

On the one hand, people are banding together in amazing ways, being creative, pivoting quickly, spending more time at home, relaxing, and video conferencing in their lounge clothes with kids and cats running randomly through the frame. The air is cleaner. There are some really amusing and witty things being shared on social media. Dogs are wondering why everyone is able to spend so much time with them all of a sudden (and they’re super stoked about it). People are baking bread and singing from their balconies. Companies are offering free services they’ve never offered before. But on the other hand, many are experiencing anxiety, loss of income and complete disruption. Hospitals in hard-hit areas are struggling and our health care workers, grocery store clerks, and delivery drivers have suddenly found themselves on the front lines. Many people are sick and thousands around the globe have lost their lives.

It is times like these that really test the collective mettle of societies.

It is also times like these where rediscovering the magic of everyday life can help to pull us all through.

It often really is, “the little things”.

I remember on the second night of the snowstorm power outage last year I was sitting in the bedroom, staring out the glass of the French doors and noticing ice crystals of snow glistening in the moonlight as new snowflakes softly and silently settled down on the railing of my deck. It was beautiful and calming. It was magical.

In that moment, I searched my memory for the last time I had seen ice crystals glistening in the moonlight and knew it had been a long time, even though freezing temps, unlike 100 year snowstorms, are much more common here in February. The reality was, I hadn’t looked for them in awhile and that thought made me feel both sad and opportunistic all at once.

In order to see magic, you have to be looking for it.

The funny thing is, on a regular basis I constantly surround myself with enchanting things. In a way, I live what I call a magical life. My home is filled with artwork, string lights, coziness, candles, lanterns and other luminaries, cats (including 2 actual cats), rocks and minerals, favorite books, rabbits, plants, collectibles, eclectic decor, owls, whimsical statues, ephemera, and all manner of objects which evoke fond memories for me.

But it still took a disruption in my normal routine for the spark to ignite once again and clue me in to an ancient secret of collective conscious — something humankind has always been tapped into … the magic of the natural world and everything in it.

Take a moment today and pause. Awaken your senses to the world around you. Really notice something. It could be your child giggling in the next room. It could be the soft purr of your cat as they sit on your lap. It could be rain drops dripping down your window, it could be lighting a candle, it could be tulips springing to life in your front yard… it could be any number of small things that evoke a memory, make you smile, or even make you very grateful to be right here, right now, in this moment. That is magical.

In spite of everything, the magic exists.

Last week, with the world turned upside down, I said to hell with it and slept in an hour longer than usual on a Monday. My cats had joined me and they weren’t in any hurry to get up either. Cats have magic all figured out, by the way. We could all learn a lot from them.

Anyway, I’m lying in a cozy bed with a lot of pillows and 2 cats and enjoying those blissful moments before officially starting the day. Finally, I got up, opened the blinds and decided it would be a great time to get in some Qi Gong before making breakfast.

Qi Gong is one part stillness, one part exercise, one part meditation, and one part magical. I’ve been practicing it for awhile now and being able to connect with both the Qi of the universe and my own is nothing short of wonderous to me. So yes, file it under magical.

Next up is breakfast. For me, it’s “Paleo” waffles with blueberries. I love blueberries, they’re my absolute favorite when it comes to fruit. The fact they exist might just be a little bit magical.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. Magic doesn’t have to be confined to the out of ordinary because it exists all around us, all of the time.

“This too shall pass.”

Now more than ever, you may be viewing the world with new perspective. Sudden, all-encompassing change has a tendency to do that. I’ll admit that lately, I’ve been affected by anxiety I haven’t felt in more than a decade. Although it’s missing a “mental” component, for lack of a better way to put it. It’s more of a body anxiety and not the dual mental snowball + physical aspects I used to experience. It’s a sense that things are afoot and not at all right at the moment. It’s the kind of anxiety that comes from too many chaos variables happening all at once. It is starting to abate though.

Now more than ever, it’s important to take a moment and notice the magic of everyday life…especially if you’re feeling stress or anxiety or just the general disruption of your regular routine.

I encourage you to take note of those things that bring you joy and add enchantment to your life and notice the natural world around you, for these are the magical things. When this current situation has passed, and your previous daily routines return, don’t forget to notice the magic of everyday life.