If in doubt return to the magic

It’s always there. It’s free. And it works.

Cottonwood trees releasing their fluffy seeds into the fields in Montreal last night. (Photo by B. Lorraine Smith #nofilter)

Notes to self: when doubt threatens to shrink the soul

I need reminders of how to forge ahead. Especially in darker, murkier times when I face-plant into my own trials and errors, when doubt shrinks my soul if I let it.

This is my reminder that magic is always freely available. It’s a gathering up of doubt-shrinking, magic-expanding tools — a kind of, “Hey self! Unrequested, unscripted transformation is not a single-track trail!” It’s a return to the magic of real and imagined seeds, and a caution about fantasy.

Maybe it can serve you, too, if darkness threatens to shrink your soul.

Magic: a solid tool

This magic is not wishful thinking. It’s not a rescue mission or a happy ending. It contains death alongside life, compost and composition, calamity and calm.

And this magic entails the tools we need whenever we choose to pick them up. Corny aphoristic tools like doing our best or not making assumptions, along with more complex tools like seeking out new mentors and apprenticing new ways. Most of all this magic lets us willingly join the rearrangement of stardust, which is all life is as far as I can tell.