Enchantment
Prose by Wayne Visser
~ Suspending disbelief is not nearly as powerful as believing ~
How often do you allow yourself to be enchanted? When last were you captivated by a story, a piece of music, or a movie? Can you think of a recent nature scene, or idea, or person who left you spellbound? We all long for enchantment, for a world of magic. But most of us learned to stop believing a long time ago. Fairies and elves, princes and princesses, talking animals and friendly trees – all these were safely packed away in a box called ‘childhood fantasies’, along with Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Only occasionally do we allow ourselves to peek back into the box through the eyes of our children, or perhaps through the flickering lens of a cinema projector. The rest of the time, our world is somewhat dull and grey, predictable and rational. We draw a sharp line between fact and fiction, between reality and illusion. And yet we trick ourselves into only believing what we can see, instead of trusting what we can feel. We are victims of our own self-deception, conjuring evidence for drudgery when our intuition is whispering wondrous secrets in our ear. So why the disenchantment? Why have we allowed the technicolour to drain from our lives, leaving a facsimile in black and white? Could it be that our parents left us in the shadow of well-meaning protection, that our schools taught us from the book of fear, that our religions forgot to tell us that the kingdom is within? Or perhaps it was an innocent misunderstanding. Our parents, our teachers, our religious leaders and ultimately, we ourselves, failed to understand that believing in fairies means believing in the art of the possible, that we are all knights in shining armour on the hero’s journey of our lives, and that tales of true love are not idealistic nonsense but the very reason for our being. Somewhere in the process of growing up, we became confused and we threw out the message with the medium, the magic with the fairytales. Nevertheless, we still all have a natural affinity for enchantment. We can start believing again. How? By allowing ourselves to be delighted, by loosening the suffocating grip we have on our emotions, by being alive to the beauty of the moment, by letting our imaginations fly. Enchantment does not mean turning our back on reality, but rather immersing ourselves in reality, with all our senses. It means being fully present in our lives, and not denying the incredible experience of being on this earth. We don’t have to struggle to be amazed, we simply have to open our eyes. We are all practicing magic all the time, whether we know it or not. The spells we cast are little affirmations we constantly chant in our heads – about whether life is fair, whether we believe in ourselves, and what is really important in our lives. Take care, therefore, that you are not invocating bad spells, against yourself and others. Enchantment comes from consciously inviting the light of love to shine through in every facet of life. And expecting to see magic happen. So, today, expect miracles, be amazed, weave good spells – in a word, let yourself be enchanted.Wayne Visser © 2005
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