The Magic of Enchantment

Day Four Enchantment Wild Musings with Renee Magnusson Peaceful Easy Feelings

Enchantment seemed to flow all around me today. But perhaps that was the strong wild wind and driving rain. Moody broody weather days always seem to hold more enchantment for me. Perhaps part of enchantment is that hint of unpredictability. I drove past an upturned rotting fence post beside a patch of mustard-coloured grass and I felt that a whole story lay there. 

A small cast iron bell in the shape of a toad which hangs on the front of my house had a maple key lodged behind it. It looked like the toad had sprouted a wing. Oh how that enchanted me, fostering a quick photo, a haiku and possibly a poem.

I find enchantment in words, playing with them, stringing them together until they sparkle like Christmas lights. It’s magic. Magic and enchantment feel like they walk hand in hand. Again, an elevation of the mundane. Alliterations and vivid descriptions, both reading them and creating them, entertain me. The challenge of haiku, both reading and writing them—capturing a molecule in a day and expanding it into something universal. As I write this, I recognise that words and noticing are two of my superpowers. That enchants me and I idly wonder why I don’t combine them more in ‘practical’ magic. What would happen if I did?

I drove earlier to tai chi class at the gym today so I could sit alone in the parking lot at 11a.m. to observe the 2 minute silence and to silently thank my Grandpa Boag, whom I never met, for his service in WWII. Then I sat in the car with the rain beating down, being rocked by the wind, doing a word puzzle until it was time to rush inside. That time, the timing all working out, the world of peace and quiet within my car all felt magical.

An overheard conversation before tai chi amused and enchanted me. A woman talking about her ‘stitch and bitch’ class. Her friend saying she’d never heard of that then the woman’s husband replying: “It’s where they go to cut everyone up then stitch them back together again.” It tickled me.

I see enchantment in Louise in her gorgeous rain jacket, mostly black with neon green and pink patches—a splash of bright colour on this grey day like an abstract painting moving across the parking lot.

I love Renee’s prompts of where in your body do you sense these feelings. Enchantment…I feel it deep in my bones, in the very pit of my stomach (my tan tien), in my feet rooted to the floor in tai chi and my hands full of tiny lightning bolts. I look for it everywhere and find it in the whimsy of a little toad bell ready to soar.

little cast iron bell in the shape of a toad with a maple seed/key lodged behind its back like a tiny wing

real life poppy

Day 315 of 365 days of haiku
​ (Remembrance Day)

Hard rain, wild wind day
branches tap windows
remember, remember

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