Magic in an Emergency
Day 19: One Month of Magic
The world can be tough. This year has felt like one of the most tender in particular. When magic feels absent (though it is always there when you look hard enough), it is helpful to have a break-in-case-of-emergency plan. This can be a mantra, a visualization, and a way to ground yourself.
Today I want you to think about how you respond when magic feels hard to find. What do you do? What can you do in the future to stay connected to your sparkle? To remember the mindset and muscle you have built over this month?
Read “Meditations in an Emergency” by Cameron Awkward-Rich
Meditations in an Emergency
Cameron Awkward-Rich
I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart. There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.
Prompt: Write about situations where magic might feel absent. How do you bring it out of hiding? What do you do to return to yourself? How in the end is magic always there?
One Month of Magic guidelines:
For the month of July, post a daily prompt to inspire magical thinking.
Read and respond to the prompt by writing for seven, seventeen, or seventy-seven minutes—whatever you like—exploring what it stirs inside you. That’s it. It’s easy and breezy and designed to make you consider things deeper to search for sparkle.
After you write, post your response in the comments section of that day's post (only available to paid subscribers). Offer feedback to at least two people. Celebrate and clarify what is magical about one another’s work. How it deepened your own awareness and awe.
Posts will NOT be emailed—don’t want to spam people—but they will be posted on chat. So, if you want a daily magical ping, turn the chat feature and notifications on. You can find how in your settings.
T, I think I’ve commented on this before, but your imagery is just so captivating, I always read it a second time, sometimes three. I love when poetry does that, wonderful!
Another very rough stanza in my sonnet-sestina. I know it doesn't make sense, but trying to see what the language is telling me:
I accept things I read in letters.
Beyond pleasantries and death, I trust
love threaded through like hoof prints of horses
among wind-tossed weeds. Fourteen
weeks since I heard from you. Your promises all water
under the ridge of a leaky roof, your texts—
never letters like the licks of dogs’
pink tongues—I look for pretty things
that don’t include you: friends?
missing like smudged towns and streams
on maps. Holding the queen
of hearts? I never loved
money. My family’s
advice can make me laugh or cry.