There are days when my smile comes as easily as my feet hitting the worn floorboards in the early morning rise. On those days, it’s easy to think lovely thoughts and the world seems easy; the light soaks into the world in golden hues and girls chase you down with flowers in hand. True story.
I don’t want to digress but this actually happened to me on one of those sunlight-easy days. I was walking in my neighbourhood feeling happy, my pretty flowered bag swinging ever so slightly off my shoulder.
I was laughing gaily, talking with a friend about how magically wonderful my neighbourhood was, when I heard someone running behind me. I turned and there was the loveliest girl holding a bright orange Gerber daisy. She worked at the flower store and said she had to bring me a flower to match my bag and the happiness that glowed around me. This kind of magic makes it easy to smile.
But what of those other days? What of the days when you awake to the jarring sound of the radio squealing news that you would rather not hear? Your feet hit the floor and the splinter of too-worn floorboards breaks the skin of your heel even as your big toe is aimed at the corner of the dresser, ready for impact and the startled gush of angry words that erupt out. What of those days? Not too long ago, I had one of those days and, to add insult to injury, it happened on a Saturday. My son was working all day and my husband was in the studio for most of it but when he came home, I garbled out one word … coffee. I needed coffee.
I grabbed a couple of my Polaroid cameras, as I tend to do when walking anywhere, and we set out. I was frayed at that point but thought that perhaps coffee would somehow magically calm me. It turns out the coffee had little to do with bringing a smile to my face. The coffee shop in my neighbourhood is also a used bookstore and a showcase for local artists. Have I mentioned that I live in a pretty great neighbourhood? We were sitting at a wood warm table nestled up against a bookcase stuffed with words as I tried to find poetry in the everyday cafe. I did find the poetry that day but more importantly, I found the magic of a reminder.
We sat there talking and drinking the foam-filled latte goodness, all the while snapping Polaroid photos. My eye spied a bit of sparkle and fluff stuffed in between a book of poetry and a wisp of light — and my curiosity got the better of me. I tugged out a beautiful bookmark wrapped in a triangle of a note with the words, “This bookmark is the gift of freebee-ness from the artist!” This kind of magic makes it easy to smile.
I took this photo and tucked the note and the bookmark back in between the words of poets for someone else to find, knowing that the magic had already made its way to my heart.
I’ll be over here thinking lovely thoughts and I hope you will too.
Photo Credits
“lovely thoughts” © Darlene J Kreutzer
thank you so much for your lovely comments! i hope sweet magic finds all three of you xo
inspiration station. is what you are, d.
what a sweet story.
Very sweet — and sunny — thoughts. Thanks for sharing them.
I hope more and more magic finds you… Wonderful post, Darlene.