Magical Minds

Tuesday night the tooth fairy flew in for a visit.  

We have a clump of trees in our back yard that we call the Enchanted Forest; this is where our fairies live, asleep all day and alive all night.   She’d been circling our house for days, waiting for my six year old’s tooth, dangling by mere threads, to fall out. 

When the time came she swooned in, leaving a wide-eyed child full of wonder and a great story, evidenced by four crystals (and a dollar) in a shiny sac!  A little bag of magic! *** 

I remember when the Tooth Fairy would visit me, silent & without solid form, leaving a shiny quarter under my pillow to be discovered in the morning.  The magic would happen unseen & unheard in any conventional sense, but was experienced & felt in such a deep place that it remains active today.  

It is this portal of the possible that follows me onto the mat and then back into my life.  I may have a different relationship to the magic in my life today, but I still believe.  When I’ve worked through Crow pose preparation over & over, never to find the right balance, and then one day it just happens, that’s a magical moment.  Briefly, my shins allow my feet to find flight, while balancing on my arms.  Nothing visible has changed in my approach, but my body takes me there with just enough effort to break a sweat.  

The Asana Fairy occasionally tucks the charms of our practice under our mats to support us so we can fly.

Being able to surrender, whether it’s to the fantasy of fairy tales or the notion of one day falling into a challenging pose to its full expression, takes a shot of imagination and a dose of faith.  In the end, though, it’s the practice, the doing, on and off the mat, that makes the magic.  

My mother loves the saying, The harder I work, the luckier I get.  I would modify it to say, The more I show up and open my heart & mind, the easier I can see the magic that swirls around me.

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*** This little bag of magic came from Angelical Whispers (click on name to visit website).   I received a beautiful hand-written note with my order, and when I suggested creating "Tooth Fairy Bags,"  was met with imagination & love.  It is a magical place!