"When she finally accepts that you genuinely want to help, RealMagic occurs."

RealMagic seems so subtle I might miss it. It never pops up out of a spot-lit top hat or suddenly surprises anyone like that! It slips in almost always unaware to utterly change everything after there. It's like that first glimpse of Vienna through jet-lag amplified fog, a quiet mental jog, an irreversible changing of tracks. One never goes back after RealMagic visits, nor wants to. There's never any saying, "No," because it's hardly a choice. Even should some selection get involved, every alternative appears as a relative slog when compared. Usually, though, it just slips through and utterly changes you.

RealMagic seems to exist most intensely in language. A word spoken in surprise. You can see it blossom in the eye first before sending permanent roots down affecting facial expression and stance. A glance might credibly stand in for a word or two, a quick peek that seems to see right through you. One brimming with love or hate, one disclosing some secret the minute before you'd almost convinced yourself that it was definitely too late. A quiet reframe from some damning mire. A phrase echoing from an unbidden choir. The ears most often catch RealMagic first.

No cards ever get involved. Cardsharps deal exclusively in trances, misdirection intended only to fool. Nothing foolish ever qualifies as RealMagic, though its almost always light-hearted or so heavy-hearted as to threaten to break someone's heart, though it never does. Everything was going to be the same until it seemed nothing could ever retain any familiar sameness ever again. What does anyone do then? What does anyone do then? is never the question needing answered then. RealMagic isn't a question. It's never a test. It seeks neither qualification nor validation. It only seeks to be. It only is. Whether you believe or not.

Christmas sometimes seems like a magical season and probably not for the presents exchanged then. We explicitly engage in cheer, exchanging pleasantries. We wish each other "a happy" and so affect the exchange. We genuinely care about the welfare of others, producing RealMagic again. We kind of get into the habit of moving through the world expecting the better of others and delight ourselves and many others as a result. It rarely takes much. Ask if you can please return that shopping cart for the mother trying to determine how to return it without leaving her toddler unattended in the car. She'll wonder if you really, really want to do that and will take some sincere convincing. When she finally accepts that you genuinely want to help, RealMagic occurs pretty much every time.

©2018 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Reconsidering , #PureSchmaltz