There is magic all around us if only we would open our eyes to it.
When I stepped on to the beach this morning to go for a walk, I stopped dead at the sight of a whale and her calf so close to shore I could have swum out to them. I’ve seen the whales frolicking off Burleigh many times this season, but none as close as this pair. It was like experiencing magic – something marvellous and unbelievable. As they cruised along, I walked beside them, following them along Burleigh beach and feeling such child-like amazement and joy each time they broke the surface to roll or wave a fin, they took my breath away. There is something beyond awesome and humbling at the sight of a mother whale cruising along beside her calf, allowing her baby space to frolic and play but hovering close enough to protect and guide at the same time.
It was such a joyous moment and I shared it with a handful of others who I stopped to point out the magic that was happening right in front of us. But I was also struck by how many people were walking along oblivious to the beauty and wonder of it, or who didn’t stop to take it in.
Before kids, John and I travelled the world. We spent more than nine months on the road, searching out the best views, the best surf, the best the world could give us. I took roll upon roll of photos (yes, the good old days of film), marvelling at the beauty and magnificence of these far flung places, dreading the time I would have to go back to boring old home.
Yet here at home, whales cruise past me as I go about my business. I’ve lived on this coastline my entire life, yet in my whole childhood I never realised those whales were there. I have taken for granted, like we tend to do, the beauty of my backyard because it’s just home. I felt the rest of the world was where I needed to go in order to see magnificence.
And isn’t that the way we treat ourselves and our lives in general – always looking outside of our own backyard, outside of our own worth and value, thinking that the good stuff is everywhere else.
Our focus is always set to the horizon, looking for the better place, the better life, and while our sight is set out there, we miss the magic that is in front of us.
I am so blessed, but not just because I can see some of Mother Nature’s best work just down the road from my house. I am so blessed because I am loved and I have people to whom I can give love. I am healthy. I have a home. I have choice and freedom and liberty. I live free of poverty and disease and true hardship and so does my family. I have opportunity and education and abundance. And I have it all at my fingertips, right in front of me.
If you have those things, you are blessed beyond measure. Don’t miss the magic right in front of you.
