As I’ve been thinking about all the big magic coming up (the holidays are already calling me to remember remember remember), I wanted to take a moment to talk about small magic.
Big magic is great and I’m not going to stop planning the big magic things, but I think that often the small magic is the shine of life.
In my mind, there are three kinds of small magic.
-Romanticizing your life
-”glimmers”/noticing
-creating small magic for others
Today I wanted to focus on creating small magic for others and I’ll focus on the other two kinds in upcoming posts.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot as my children are about to start school. There are so many different things that I can do for them to create small magic. One of the things that I love about small magic is that it doesn’t have to take a lot of time or mental energy. The other thing I love about it is that it’s ALL plastic.
If you haven’t heard of the plastic vs glass balls theory, I’m about to change your life. I came across a quote from Nora Roberts about life balance when I was newly postpartum with my second child. I searched and searched for the quote but could only find other people summarizing what she said, so here is my best summarization of her quote. She said that as a mother you don’t just have 5 balls or 10 balls in the air at a time. You have 50 balls in the air at a time. There is no way to keep all those balls in the air at once. Some of them are going to hit the floor. The key is knowing which balls are plastic and which are glass. When the plastic balls hit the ground, they bounce. When the glass hits the floor, it shatters. Sometimes work things are glass and you have to let some kid stuff hit the ground because it’s plastic. Sometimes the kid stuff is glass and the work stuff can bounce.
So when I say that small magic is plastic, I mean that you don’t have to worry about it hitting the floor. They are little things that enhance but are not vital. Things like packing a note into your child’s lunch, or buying their favorite snack. Things like having homemade cookies waiting for them on the first day after school (can you tell that my brain is first day of school focused?).
One of the small magic things I like to do with my kids now that they’re in school is take them on a small date on Sundays. When I say small date, I mean a 20-minute walk and maybe we drink a fun drink while we do it.
More small magic ideas that I do or plan on doing:
-making homemade popsicles
-making pasta the nights before my husband’s long runs
-homemade popcorn in our stasher bag for family movies
-hot chocolate in a thermos for the days we play at the park in the cold
-making a yummy treat for the kids’ snack after their first day of school
Small magic that has been done for me:
-bringing me a cup of warm water to wash my face at night
-making sure that I had my workout clothes cleaned when I needed them
-folding things the way I like them folded
-handwashing the pan I always use for eggs in the morning
-buying me new fresh flowers when mine started to die
I think the heart of small magic for others is noticing them and making things just a little bit nicer for them in whatever way you can. I bet you’re making more small magic than you even realize. I also have noticed that whatever you focus on, you become more creative in that area. If making small magic is something you want to do more of, just take a few minutes to brainstorm. For me, things usually come to me over time. I may not think of much in the moment, but the more my brain works on it, the more that it comes up with. I like to text myself or jot ideas down in a notebook as they come to me.
Remember, your particular brand of magic is going to be different than someone else’s.
Good luck making magic! I’d love to hear about the small magic that you are making or that has been made for you!
You're so good at doing magic.