We had a big family planning meeting all day on Saturday. During a break, our friend Tom kept the boys entertained with exciting magic tricks.
They were completely enthralled.
This led to many conversations and YouTube video searches on how magic tricks work. It also led to a google search to find the nearest magic trick shop. We discovered one on the square in McKinney. Noah was especially excited to learn that if you bought a trick from them, they would teach you how it works before you left the shop. So we made plans to make the trip over as a family last night.
As we arrived, we didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves.
The place was dark and cold. It was surprisingly quite bustling with people, as they were shooting some sort of film in one area. A young guy greeted us and showed us over to a section on the wall lined with boxes of different levels of magic trick “kits”. The kits seemed rather boring compared to the excitement we’d read about online. The boys were less than thrilled by the experience.
Until we met David, the magician.
He wore a black 3-piece suit with a tie and a hat. He talked with a very entertaining tone in his voice. By all outside standards he was a little bit ‘off’ and quirky. He would raise his voice and then lower it to a whisper. He did trick after trick. The boys oohed and aahed. It didn’t matter that it was closing time on a Sunday. For David, it was a magic time for these boys.
That was all it took.
They were hooked. They would’ve stayed all night to watch him and try to learn his tricks. Why?
It certainly wasn’t because he was going to make a huge sale.
The boys were carrying their little envelopes of money and we were talking the whole time about what they could (and could not) afford to spend. It clearly wasn’t because they were serious about becoming magicians and would be lifelong customers. They were clearly only testing the waters.
It was because he was paying attention.
Just like Tom, he knew those boys needed something fascinating to bring them into a world of possibility, beyond their understanding. They weren’t wowed by David’s mysterious powers. It wasn’t the idea of the impossible, because they knew they were going to learn the tricks before we left.
They were wowed when they expanded their understanding of the possible.
It turns out, that’s all magic is. It’s learning to see the possibility in a situation that seems entirely impossible. It’s learning to completely reframe what you already know, with different boundaries. To see things with a different lens. When you take away the limits on what you believe is possible, it changes everything.
There is almost always another way around. . . if only you decide to look for it.
Is it magic? Probably not. It probably looks a lot more like showing up and doing the hard work to find it. And it requires that you expect to find a new path emerge.
But if you do, I bet you’ll be fascinated by what you find.
That’s when its magic time.
to more love,
Crystal
