I Missed The Memo

I missed the memo about magic.

I’ve recently begun reading the Harry Potter books for the first time.  I know, I know…I’m crazy late to the Harry Potter party, but I think it took to my love affair with The Hunger Games Series to finally break down my resistance to fiction written for younger readers.  And like any sentient creature who’s read any of the Harry Potter books, I’m utterly charmed by the characters, the setting, and of course, the magic.

While Harry and the rest of the Hogwarts crew learn the ways of major league magic, I’ve been thinking about all the little bits of magic I’ve experienced in my own life.  I’m not sure if it’s good luck, good karma, or sheer force of will, but some wonderful things have happened to me over the years.  A college friend, observing that I seemed to conjure a lot of good stuff, even coined a term for the phenomenon….”Jamie Charm”.  I’m still not entirely sure what it means, but I’ll take it.

The magic I’ve experienced takes many forms, some small, some big.  I’ve landed perfect jobs in the nick of time.  I rarely get bitten by mosquitoes.  I avoided the pain and inconvenience of oral surgery simply by being born without wisdom teeth.  I typically don’t have to wait more than a couple of seconds for an elevator.  I’ve conceived two babies, both “on the first try”.

It’s that last one that has me reeling most recently, because it really does seem like magic, too good and lucky to be true, that at age 38, I could get knocked up within just a couple of weeks of deciding I really wanted another child.  At the first doctor’s appointment, my obstetrician high- fived my husband, because, statistically at least, we’re total freaks.   Our good fortune in the baby-making department leads to all sorts of magical thinking on my part.  It’s easy to mistake fortuitous physiology for fate.  But it has been my experience, that when things are meant to be, they often seem magically easy. But then again, when something seems to fall into our laps, we sometimes forget that we designed the chair, carefully constructed it, and then chose to have a seat at just the moment when the universe made the drop.

Maybe magic is just the fantastic intersection of the things we can control and the things we can’t, the collision of hope, intention, and chance.   In any event, here’s a really dreamy Olivia Newton-John song on the subject….[And please tell me that Xanadu is one of your favorite movies…seriously, Greek mythology, roller skating, and Gene Kelly…what’s not to like?]

Memo received.