Little Magic

“Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe I’d cause a flood and people would be killed. That’s the problem with big magic. I only do little magic. Good cooking, my curing soup, my Tonic.”





Ella Enchanted is one of my very favorite read-alouds. It's light and fun and easily accessible, but each reading leaves me with something to ponder. I guess you could say that it is little magic, and in that regard, it makes a good case for itself.

Sometimes we need big magic, though.

Fourteen years ago, when I was pregnant with the twins, I had horrible nausea. It was so bad that I couldn't even hold down water, let alone enough nourishment to sustain two growing little ones. Without some extraordinary intervention, we would have been done for.

My doctor gave me an incredible potion that could completely stop nausea in a matter of minutes. It was big magic, and I'm grateful for it.

But big magic can have unintended consequences. Zofran helped me in big ways, but the side effects can be ghastly. When I was pregnant with the twins, it was too expensive to use except in emergencies. I had a sample pack of ten blissfully nausea-free days which I carefully hoarded and rationed. In a later pregnancy, however, the price had gone down enough that I could afford to be nausea-free every day. It was wonderful at first, but after a few weeks of consecutive use my digestive system shut down. It was a nightmare, and I regretted it for months after.

I'm so glad that there was big magic available when I was in danger of dehydration, but for lesser nausea, it did more harm than good.

Better stick to little magic whenever possible. Pressure to certain spots on my wrists, visualisation exercises, little tweaks to what I ate and when. Avoiding the many smells that made it worse and seeking out the few that helped. Ordinary, everyday safe things, strategically planned out to help me manage. It wasn't an instant fix like Zofran, and little magic wasn't enough all the time. Still, the little things added up, and without any awful side effects.

Big magic is sometimes necessary, but it is never entirely safe, and it requires a good deal of specialized knowledge to control.

Most of the time, we really just need some little magic. The tiny changes that send out big ripples.

Exercise.

Fresh air.

Lots of good clean water.

Is your perfume making you sick? Or helping you stay emotionally balanced? (It might be doing either one!)

Do you have enough beauty in your life?

Do you need a hug?

What are you cleaning with?

Are you eating good wholesome food, and in the proportions that make you feel good?

Even when big magic is necessary, it's important to tend to the little magic in our lives.