I do!
I am under the firm belief that magic is all around us. It's in how the grass grows after a rain shower, how the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, and how we transform our own lives once we make the decision to start living from an authentic place!
I was inspired this last week by the documentary, "Arnold" on Netflix which detailed the life and journey of Arnold Schwarzenegger from a kid in Austria to an award-winning bodybuilder, to one of the highest-grossing film actors to the Governor of California! How magnificent is it that we can change directions in our lives, and embark on an entirely different path than the one we had before? I call this coming out of the box and embracing your magic.
“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Days and weeks leading up to me stumbling across Arnold's documentary I was feeling a little lost - I was clear that I wanted to introduce new ways of thinking and being to the world, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. I finished writing my second book and sent it off for editing and to create a book cover but I was struggling a bit on how to market it. This confusion sent me into some dark spaces of doubt - "what if it doesn't sell?", "what if no one trusts my opinion on this?". On top of that, I attended my first maternal and child health meeting in over two years. After listening to the presentations, I felt like time had stopped and I was suddenly jolted back to 2019 when I was knee-deep in infant and maternal mortality work because everyone was talking about the same thing from that time frame. I had to double-check that we were actually in 2023.
I had to ask myself why would we as a society still be stuck in the same place that we were in 4 years ago. When I addressed the committee at this meeting, I emphasized and encouraged them to think outside of the box - to forget everything they think they knew about this issue, and embrace the possibility that the solution is not what they have been conditioned to think it is. I realized at that moment that the real problem wasn't infant or maternal mortality - it was a lack of imagination, a lack of creativity, and a lack of magic!
We have gotten so used to the same ole, same ole that we have become complacent with mediocre outcomes and have forgotten the one thing that makes us magical - our imagination. Imagination is not just for kids - or if it is, we must remember that we all were once kids, and that kid still lives inside of us. It exists so that we can see what isn't there to see right now in the moment, but if we believe and trust then that thing that exists in our imagination can come to fruition.
My first and second books becoming best sellers exist in my imagination, and I expect that to come true because I believe, even in the midst of doubt. I also believe that we can reclaim our imagination, creativity, and magic to solve the many puzzles (problems) we have as a society. Arnold reminded me that any and everything is possible. As a kid in Austria, all he knew was that he wanted to be in America. From the moment he discovered Reg Park in the Hercules film, his heart decided that he would be a bodybuilder and actor. His imagination and belief in magic made that real - and even better than he could ever have imagined, including the opportunity to meet Reg Park.
I have come to a point in my journey where my heart has decided to embrace the magic and fully accept who I used to be, and who I am now becoming.
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." - Albert Einstein
I challenge and encourage the adults of the world to embrace their magic, imagination, and creativity - to pry themselves out of a box. We only have one life that we are currently living - why not make this the most magical experience it can possibly be.
Do you believe in magic, now?
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