Do you believe in magic?

Last weekend we saw a beautiful double rainbow. “I don’t see the pot of gold. But I think I do see the rim,” declared our eight-year old squinting her eyes to the horizon. Her dad asked if she also saw any leprechauns. “How would I ever be able to see leprechauns? They’re really tiny. ” But some muttering in the back of the car a little later, suggested that she may have spotted one.

My husband joined in with the imagination. “Such a thick solid rainbow. You could slide down that rainbow.” “I can’t do that” (aha… that must be my gene). “I would need a Unicorn to do that” (and then maybe not).

The conversation and the imagination continued and I wondered how long we had before these conversations would stop altogether.  The status of the tooth fairy has become rather shaky of late and I wonder if Santa is next.

And each time we have such a conversation, the dry, pragmatic in me hopes that I won’t say something to shake her colorful, imaginative world, filled with Unicorns and Leprechauns, and no end to possibilities. For I am not sure how long before this magic disappears into wispy nothingness of rationality and reason. Even if she has on occasion used her magical connections against her parents – especially to get a puppy.  

In many ways she is a poignantly practical, and yet several notes have been written to the several forces that be. Two years ago, the then-six-year-old realized that her parents were not getting her that puppy, and finally sat down and wrote this note. She had taken matters in her own hands and had victory written all over her face.  

 A few months and other attempts later, she tried her luck with the tooth fairy, and even attempted to disguise her handwriting. “Look Mom, the tooth fairy left you a note. And she has scribbly handwriting like yours.”

 

Have you seen a child clench her eyes and make a wish before blowing out a birthday candle? Or think carefully before writing a wish on a paper? Their wishes matter. Their hopes are intact. They know their dreams are going to come true. There is no looming shadow of practicality or pragmatism to shake the belief.  

Our mind will believe what we allow it to believe. Somewhere down the road, I probably taught my mind to be pragmatic and practical. And in doing so, my world became more black and white.

I remember a time when my world was quite colorful too. My imagination will still carry me away I suppose. But it is grounded in reality with all its limitations. And when I hear conversations as these, I wonder if in all our knowledge and learning, we have allowed the magic to slide out…

a five-year-old knows exactly what to do when your mother does not have a green thumb.