A few weeks ago, I was helping serve at a catering event (long story). It was a very big family reunion being held in a large hotel ballroom. We are talking maybe around 150 to 200 people in the room. Though there was a good handful of children, there were many more adults of all ages. After everyone had finished their dinner and were nibbling on dessert and sipping on coffee, that’s when the after-dinner show began.
For their Family Reunion entertainment that evening, somebody had hired a magician to perform a show. Picture the classic type: black top hat, black cape with red velvet inset, crisp white shirt, wand, that sort of thing. As I was walking around the room filling coffees, it got more and more quiet as the magician went through his show. And quieting a room of 150 family members is not easy when everyone is catching up and visiting after a long time not seeing each other.
I couldn’t help but watch the show myself and I must say, it was absolutely wonderful. The magician did all the “classics”: card tricks (shuffling the cards and somehow choosing the correct one that a volunteer had drawn prior), coin tricks (pulling a quarter from a young boy’s ear), pulling a never-ending scarf from his hat, etc. etc. The grand finale of the show was when he pulled a beautiful snowy white dove out of his top hat when seconds before he had shown us that the hat was completely empty. It was wonderful, honestly. Before he did the big reveal, the room was absolutely silent and you could feel that electric, suspenseful anticipation in the crowd, the kind that gives you goosebumps. There was a whole room full of “ooohs and aahs” and giddy laughs at the trick’s finale as the dove flew from the hat around the room then landed back on the magician’s arm.
Most of us have been to a magic show of some type or at least seen one on TV. I can’t say for certain, but I believe that nearly every adult in that room knew what was going to happen in most, if not all of the tricks or at least had some sense of the progression of them. And yet, here we all were, a room plum full of adults all over the age spectrum sharing a moment that felt so light and joyful as we watched a dove “magically appear” from a hat and fly about the room.
This got me thinking about our deep, yet often hidden need for things like this. For magic. Because let’s be real: sometimes adult life can seem really big, so serious, *stressful*, heavy and often monotonous. Yet, here was a room full of adults truly enjoying a children’s magic show and being in the moment of it all. I read a quote awhile back though I’m not sure of its original source: “great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart”. This is something I believe in for sure. To add my own personal spin on it: “great is the adult who seeks their childlike heart”. I am a big subscriber to this principle as there is a big difference between being “childish” and being “child-like”.
I always try to allow myself to be the latter. It comes very natural to me so more specifically, I allow myself the space to be child-like. How, you might ask? I simply let myself get excited about silly little things: eating cotton candy and seeing a “World of Wonders” show at the annual county fair. Or, making it a point to visit any local candy store I happen to be near. Or hiding hundreds of Easter eggs all over the hospital (but don’t worry, never in or near patients’ rooms) so my adult colleagues could have a little holiday fun (yes, there were prizes in every egg lol). Or going to the “Museum of the Bizarre” on a roadtrip. Or making unicorn art projects with my friends’ two young daughters. Just simply allowing myself space to be a little whimsical. My wise mother once told me not to take myself so seriously. So I don’t 😋, although I will say this one is a little more challenging for me and takes a little more work on my end (and sometimes a few reminders from my mom lol).
Little Big Life 