checking in {7.23}

It’s time! We’re checking in with our words. The link party’s up and stays open through Sunday. 

Join here. Let’s catch up!

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If you’re new around here, my One Word ’23 is Ask. And in July, I asked myself,

Where’s a little bit of magic?

I’ll find it. Or, I’ll make it.

The thing about magic, though, as Sarah said in her crystalline comment, is [magic’s] not something you can plan for — you just have to seize it and enjoy it when it happens!

I could not stop thinking about that. Because yes. Yes! Magic . . . happens.

It’s not, ahem, shoehorned.

There’s a nuance I missed that Sarah (unknowingly) nudged me to find.

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We had an up and down spring, you could say. And on a drive to basketball camp one misty morning, I passed a cow serenely wading in her bog and it struck me:

I can make everything hard. Or I can let that thing be hard.

Because the magic? It’s there. All around. In that misty meadow, in fact. We either see it…notice…participate.

Or we don’t.

(‘Must be present to win‘ comes to mind.)

To Sarah’s point — you just have to seize it and enjoy it when it happens! — when I let capital-E Everything be hard, I don’t see the magic. And we can’t seize what we can’t see. (That, that right there, was the nuance for me.)

Some days, making the choice — everything OR *that thing* — is easier than others, right? On the best days, I might be well rested; my body, in balance; I feel supported. And so on.

Other days…mmm maybe not.

If I’m discouraged/fearful/in a tail spin, that’s when I need to muster the effort. Make a little magic.

What do I mean by make it? Not squeeeeze into the glass slipper. But…set it down. Step away. Say yes to something different/good/refreshing/new. (I’m hearing Juliann on novelty here.)

(Speaking of magic, how about the magic of setting it down! Sometimes…sometimes…it feels a smidge lighter when I pick it back up.)

The kind I’m talking about, from July’s prompt:

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It’s easy when it’s easy. The hard part is walking my talk when it’s not. Remembering there’s still magic — worth seeing and seizing — even on the ‘other’ days.

That’s where showing up here makes a difference. With other writers and readers and One Worders. Sharing space with those who cause you to pause. And think. Who hold up a mirror or teach something new. Send a message. Sometimes say I know just what you mean.

So, thank you. Thanks for joining me.

I look forward to catching up with you and your words as we say goodbye to July — and hello, August! (Here’s that link again.) I’ll be back in a few days with my new prompt for a new month. ‘Til then — xo