Glimpses of Magic

On By Daphne Cybele Van SchaickIn Freelance Writing, Opinion & Editorial

When I was a little girl, I believed absolutely in magic. As an adult, there are still times (although much more rarely) when imagination and reality can intersect at an angle just so, and the suggestion of magic reappears.  For example, just imagine you’re helping to tend a garden one spring day, and you’ve been told there’s an 18th century well somewhere on the property.  A beautiful stone well, dating to the time of the American Revolution, with the stones fitted together precisely in an elegant rock round, that is now blocked off by brush and in an uncertain location in the woods, no longer visible. Doesn’t it sound interesting?  Wouldn’t you want to get a look?  I did. I was told the general direction, and I headed carefully through brush, trying to avoid thorny catches on fabric and scratches on bare skin.  I came across a log, as high as my knee around.  I scrambled up to walk on it as a clearer path, and a vantage point from which to see, the heels of my flat-soled sneakers sinking slightly into the log as I stepped along it’s length, my step muted, the wood soft and golden, the bark long ago peeled away. At the end of this log, I found a medium-sized tangled tree bent half over, weeping branches mimicking its reaching and exposed roots, a mirror reflecting only itself.  And stepping off the vantage point of my log and down to the earth, underneath that tangle of branches and to the side of those exposed wooden roots, the glimmer of a pool of water, bordered by carefully fitted stones.   I edged through the tangle to get a better look, beneath branches and over roots, my hair catching on twigs, traveling on slippery root and wet earth, ending close to the edge of the well.  The water high and close to the top, leaving most stones wavy below the shadow of branches on its glimmer-glass surface.  An edge of fear, the possibility of falling in, down through the water and down through the collected silt and into the unseen, like Persephone. Close to the edge of the water, just as I was considering the depths and the probability of my fears, I spotted a pile of feathers.

Yellow and black, striped cream and grey.  No beak, no claw, no bone, no tendon, just the feathers in a neat pile, and a large pile at that, an entire bird’s plumage.   A costume change (if this were a fairy tale) or the remains of a feast by hawk or fox or other small beast. What it was, I think in retrospect, is the confluence of earth, water, and air in a magic afternoon: a garden in Vermont, a walk through the woods and along a log, dappled sun on water, under the blue sky reflected in an old well, and a pile of airy feathers.

Glimpses of Magic
Maintain a sense of wonder: a Bean and Bantam post about finding and remembering magic.

Books that exemplify the magic world of my memories as a child:Front Cover The Fledgling by Jane Langton “Georgie’s fondest hope, to be able to fly, is fleetingly fulfilled when she is befriended by a Canada goose.” James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl “When James accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree begins to grow, and before long it’s as big as a house. When James discovers a secret entranceway into the fruit and crawls inside, he meets wonderful new friends–the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the dainty Ladybug, and the Centipede…” Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones.  “Here now.  Now here.  Nowhere.”  That’s my elegy, and it’s from this book.  I love this book.   I still do not fully understand the very end and would love to discuss with other readers. A Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin “Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is Winter's Taleone of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.”

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18 thoughts on “Glimpses of Magic”

  1. Daphne, your post today is as lovely as it is mysterious, and leaves me wondering if your well was really there or if it exists in your imagination. Also, you’ve hooked me. I never read Fire and Hemlock. I perused a few reviews at Goodreads and now I want to!

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  2. This has got me remembering all the magical stories I loved. I reread lots of them every few years. Ronald Dahl is one of my favorites too… I share a birthday with him. I will check out Fire and Hemlock! Loved this well story, the way you described it, I can picture it perfectly….I wonder if you were tempted to make a wish and toss a stone down into it?

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  6. kim

    A lovely story. There is a kind of magic everywhere, I think, but we rarely take the time to see it when we leading our busy adult lives. I have a lot of magical childhood books on my shelves too. Maybe rereading some of them will make me more alive to the magic that is here and now. x

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  11. Pauline Hovey

    I love imagination. It’s essential to life. And when I was a child, I longed to fly. Sometimes I still do, too. Thanks for visiting and liking my blog. I will get you an address if you’re interested in donating used clothing to the children here at the border.

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  12. This is incredible! I completely agree with your believing in a little bit of real-life magic. I’ve added some of your recommendations to my book list! I’m trying to read at least one “fun” book a month and now I have so many more options (that are actually fun)! Thank you for sharing!

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