The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

                                                                                                               --W.B. Yeats

We so want to believe in magic. Somehow I think we know that it’s there, as Yeats tells us, just “waiting for our senses to grow sharper”; but sadly it’s been denigrated and marginalized, scoffed at and even demonized in ultra right religions, to the point where we have lost the ability to tune in to a sparkling, magical world.

Kids get it . . . until the first time a grown up steps on their vision. We are born wise and complete. We came into this world ‘knowing’. And I believe this is one reason that Harry Potter’s magical world skyrocketed to fame and fortune. At the risk of repeating myself: We want to believe in magic.

How to find it?

It sounds almost too simplistic to say, ‘It’s all around us’. But of course it is. The real question should be: How do we wake up to it?

To be ‘awakened’ to a new paradigm is (in this case) becoming enlightened. Allowing the light to enter us. And since ‘light’ is consciousness, it follows that we are seeking a new consciousness.

I could give chapter and verse about that seeking. I’ve been at it for years now . . . two steps forward and one step back, implying that some progress has been made. (Let’s hope so; I’m getting close to my expiry date.)

What I can say with certainty is that it comes with bringing our self into the present moment. I can sense silent groans as you read this – ‘I’ve heard all this before’ groans. But it does seem to be the answer to today’s madness. How, in the midst of the madness, do we stop/look/and listen?

I’ll give you a quick recipe to begin: Three breaths.

Better still, three deep breaths. But we're beginning so let’s keep it easy, simply breathing in and out consciously three times. This is because the awakened world is all around us, just waiting for us to become aware. I notice it when I am walking in nature, alone, caught in a web of ‘thinking’ when suddenly a bird chirps, or a squirrel scurries, or the sun pops out of a cloud, and my spirit surfaces. Thank you, I say out loud, for waking me up! Thank you for making a gap in my consciousness. For pulling me out of my cocoon.

Beloved Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron, from whom I learned this technique, refers to it as ‘popping a bubble’ or poking a hole in the clouds. A beautiful metaphor, because our heads really are lost in the clouds. She suggests that we can use sound as well as sight to bring us back to the moment. Any sound available – just notice it. Let go of your story line for that moment. Release the worry, the planning, the being consumed by electronic devices. Three conscious breaths.

Wherever you are in your day – before getting out of bed: three conscious breaths. In the shower, driving to work, in line at the market, throughout your working day and all the useless minutiae that grips us: three conscious breaths. Sometimes I do it through my body, feeling my seat on a chair or my hand on a desk. It breaks the thinking pattern and brings me out of my mind and into my body.

Lost in thought, says Eckhart Tolle, is the human condition. This is what we are up against. But what a useless waste of time!

The vast, magical, expansive world is blessing us and waiting for us to wake up to it . . . to the thrill of just being alive in real time.

It takes discipline, yes, but it is so worth it. It’s like pulling the switch from ego to essence, and that, my friends, it real magic. It doesn’t take a plunge into the ocean, or a walk in a rainforest, or a lover’s kiss to awaken us. Just three conscious breaths to take us out of automatic pilot.

Punctuate your day and your life with these wake up calls. Pema Chodron says that it is the most important thing we can do with our lives.

                                                    You have to believe we are magic
                                                       Nothin' can stand in our way.
                                                   You have to believe we are magic
                                                      Don't let your aim ever stray.
 
                                                                    - Olivia Newton-John
                                                                                Xanadu