Making Magic
A friend of mine recently taught me a trick. It’s a bit like magic only anyone can do it.
Close your eyes.
Do it when the world feels like it’s spinning too fast. When you feel like you have to catch your breath.
Close your eyes.
But keep listening and feeling. And take a moment to breathe.
When you open your eyes everything seems clearer and brighter. The world is in focus again.
For a while now I’ve been thinking about those moments of darkness. About how we think about things in terms of black and white, light and dark, good times and bad. How all those terms are loaded and how perhaps everything is not as cut and dry we were brought up to believe.
For the last months I’ve taken a walk every day. I’ve walked the same paths and seen how nature changes. I’ve watched blossom turn to leaves. I’ve seen ducklings grow up. I’ve seen the roses bloom. I’ve learned the names of the dogs and their owners and even befriended Freddie who once growled every time he saw me. I’ve taken comfort in the routine, the fact that when so much was spinning out of control I knew the paths I would take and when I would take them. There is no doubt that walking has kept me sane but perhaps it’s not the walking itself but rather because it’s part of a time that gives me space to breathe, part of a bigger picture. Perhaps it’s because that time is an in between time, a liminal space, where I think, have ideas and make connections that wouldn’t otherwise happen.
I was once told that somewhere in Jewish tradition it says that the white spaces between black letters and words are as important as the words themselves. Without the spaces the words don’t make any sense. And whilst I’m not religious there’s something about this that has intrigued me. There’s something curious about how the dark letters are defined but how the spaces in between are more amorphous . Something about how the words don’t make sense without the spaces and the spaces could not be seen if not for the letters and the words.
Over the past weeks I’ve thought about that more. Mostly when I’m walking. How everything is connected. How nothing is as it seems. How things fit together even when it seems that they don’t.
How the words need the spaces and the spaces need the words.
How nothing is really as simple as black and white.
How my walks give me space to just be.
And how if I close my eyes I’m not blocking out everything that’s going on in the world I’m giving myself time to make things clearer.
And sometimes it still seems a lot to deal with and it still feels like the world is spinning out of control, because perhaps it is.
And when it does I close my eyes and take a moment to breathe in the darkness.
Try it.
It’s magic.
Juliet Simmons
Juliet Simmons is a Project Director who makes creative things happen. Her business is called Piece of Cake because she gets things done. But she likes eating cake too.