Do you believe in magic? 

Because I do. Believe in magic, I mean. I don’t mean magic like Harry Potter or Walt Disney. I’m talking about “real” magic, the kind we’re surrounded by everywhere we go and in the midst of everything we do. The magic is there, and seeing it begins with realizing each day is a gift and being grateful for that gift.

A few years back, a friend posted what she was thankful for on Facebook every day in November. What a great thing to do! It was such a good idea I decided I would try to post on Facebook what I was thankful for each day starting the first of January, and I’d do it for the entire year. 

It was a new discipline for me, and I’m as busy as anyone else so I would often forget to post anything. But when I missed a night, I posted two the next night. It was foreign and awkward and difficult at first, and on some tough days, it was a challenge to find even one thing to be thankful for.

After about three months, however, my perspective began to change, and I began to see things I’d never seen before. Knowing I was going to post something every night made me to open my eyes and look around. And when I did, I was astounded at what I saw! Magic was everywhere. 

One day it was a thoughtful card from a friend. Another day it was the haunting cry of the mourning doves when the sun came up. And yet another day it was seeing an elderly couple holding hands as they drank their coffee at our Pell City Waffle House. He told me he was 86 and his “young bride” was 84—and they’d been married 68 years. 

The best “Pell City Magic Moment” for my husband and me this week came courtesy of two red-tail hawks. On our way home from a brutal six-hour medical marathon, we saw those hawks in the field just down the road from our house. They saw us and took flight, seeming to perform an aerial display just for us, and we stopped the car to watch them. Their majestic gliding across and around that field was graceful, almost synchronized and seemingly without purpose except to delight their audience of two. As we gaped like two ecstatic little kids, mesmerized by their beauty, I was reminded again of the magic that surrounds us.

There’s plenty of magic to go around, so why not claim some for yourself and enjoy it? It doesn’t matter whether you live in downtown Pell City or so far out in the country your zip code is E-I-E-I-O. Magic is waiting for you and me to find it, and we will if we open our eyes and look for it.

What if that yellow powder on your car isn’t really pollen? What if it’s fairy dust instead, and as you blow it off, brush it off, or use a hose to wash it off, you look for the magic it brought along with it? I dee double dog dare you to try it! 

Rita Aiken Moritz is the President and founder of Writers Anonymous. Check out her blog, books or get in touch at www.ritamoritz.com.

Find your own “Magical Moment?” Submit it to the St. Clair News-Aegis! We want to know where you find magic in our community. Email esowa@newsaegis.com, call the office at (205) 884-2310, find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/newsaegis) or Twitter (twitter.com/SCNewsAegis), or write to: St. Clair News-Aegis, P.O. Box 750 Pell City, AL 35215.