The Magic of Waiting - An Instant Life Upgrade
It’s September 1.
Do you know what that means?
Students go back to Hogwarts!
Lol, that’s not typically where things go around here.
Typically I’m here talking about health, healing, spirituality, and challenges in life. And while that’s all very important, it’s not everything so we’re switching it up a bit today.
I have been pulling a daily affirmation card over the past few weeks. Today I pulled “joy is the ultimate creator,” and that is absolutely the truth. The more joy that we bring into our lives, the better our lives are and the more joy we attract to us. Yes, thank you, more please!
Another truth is that I love Harry Potter. The books bring me great joy. I didn’t read them as a child. I picked them up for the first time in my early 20s and fell in love then. I’ve reread them every single year since.
I’ve pondered a lot about this love of these fiction books that I have. Am I too old to still love them? Why do I love them as much as I do? What is it about Harry Potter that I can read over and over again and never get tired of?
To answer those questions, I don’t think I’m too old and I don’t think you are either. These books have grown to the level that they’re at because of the vast range of interest that they get from people of all ages. You are allowed to like what you like! The second and third questions, I’m not sure what the answers are. I don’t think I have to know specifics even though I can name off many reasons. When it comes down to it, I just know that the books bring me joy and I can read them repeatedly while still taking new things away from them each time, and that is enough for me.
I hope that you have some books that you love so deeply too.
So each year on September 1 I start reading the Harry Potter series again. Not July 1 or August 31. September 1.
What does it matter when I start reading the books?
I see it as another way to bring a certain type of magic into my life. The magic of waiting.
In a world of Amazon Prime, Netflix, social media, and all of the other things that I use and have greatly enhanced my life, we have lost the magic of waiting for things.
Recognizing that provides me with the opportunity to change it and to bring some of that waiting into my life. Now, let’s not get wild and crazy. I’m not looking to go back to the time when one episode of a show was released each week on tv and you had to sit down at that exact moment to watch it or you’d miss it. I’m also not looking to go back to having to go out into the world seeking some esoteric book when I can just order it straight to my house in 2 days. I think that we can love these modern advancements while also pulling in the way things were the past in ways that light up our lives.
That’s why I wait until September 1 to read Harry Potter.
I build that excitement with the essence of waiting.
By June I start to get excited about it. All throughout the month of August the anticipation builds. I put the books front and center on top of the book shelf. I make sure to time my book reading so that I can transition smoothly into Harry Potter on September 1 without having to shelve a half finished book for a few months. And on August 31 I set the book on my nightstand, knowing that the next morning it will be there ready for me.
I make it a whole thing simply because I can.
Life is short. Life is miraculous. Life is something that we are allowed to enjoy.
So often we take things so seriously and make big deals out of nothing. It’s equally comical and sad.
When you wake up to the reality that you are allowed to have fun, life live to the fullest, and experience pleasure in whatever your heart pulls you towards - that is when you truly start living.
I’ve mentioned it in past writings but as Mary Oliver says, “are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”
So many of us are.
As time goes on, responsibilities, stressors, and self created issues roll in and joy, magic, and excitement fly out the window.
What’s even crazier is that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can create excitement and magic in your life with something as simple as choosing a date to read your favorite book and building excitement about it.
When I was a food blogger I would get so excited in the evening because I would get to wake up and make some type of really fun and decorated breakfast to share on my Instagram account. I truly felt like the luckiest person in the world that I would get to decorate my oatmeal with goji berries, star fruit, and whatever other funky ingredients I could find. It was just breakfast but it was an exciting breakfast because I made it exciting.
Mitch and I have a date night every week where we typically go to dinner and then get ice cream. Thursday and Friday roll around and the excitement of our time out together builds. It builds because I build it. I think about where we might go, the conversation we’ll have, and the presence of the moment. As fall rolls around I’ve begun to think about how we’ll shift from ice cream to something else. What will it be?! I don’t know but I’m going to begin building that excitement around it so that when the time comes I will be fully absorbed in the magic of the moment.
Speaking of fall, another perfect example of this is pumpkin spice at Starbucks. I don’t know how many pumpkin spice lattes Starbucks sold last Thursday when they first released them, but I bet it was a lot! I don’t even drink lattes and I was excited, “pumpkin is back!!” because, ya know, the magic is in the waiting. If Starbucks had pumpkin spice lattes every day then they wouldn’t be as special. But since you have to wait for it, boom, magic.
When it comes down to it, we are responsible for how we exist in the world.
You can drink a cup of deal by chugging it down to fulfill your thirst and get some caffeine in you. Or you can drink your tea by smelling it, feeling the warmth of the cup on your hands, letting the taste explode your tastebuds into blissful oblivious with each sip. Either way, you’ll have the same cup of tea so it’s your choice.
For me, I choose to bring in magic where I can. I choose to see the world through rose colored glasses. I choose to make things special by waiting for them instead of getting frustrated or removing that anticipation with annoyance and distraction. I choose to make the most out of it all because I have lived the other way. I know what it’s like to fall into the routine of society. I know what it’s like to commiserate with others about life. I know that living that way is not for me. I know that I am able to do things differently.
And so, I find things I love and I build excitement around them. I set special dates to read my favorite books. I look forward to making my fun breakfasts and going on date nights. I do the same things that I’ve done for a long time, but now, I do them differently. I do them with a spark of magic and wonder. I take responsibility for my life and the way I view the world. As a result, everything is whole lot better - instant life upgrade.
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