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The new magician in town
Next to my computer there is a picture of an 8 year old me wearing a black magician’s cape. In those days my dad took me to magic classes where I learned to pull a foam rabbit out of a box rigged for optical illusions.
I also learned card tricks and how to palm objects so they’d vanish with “abracadabra.” Magic was one of my early attempts at reaching for the unobtainable.
While the invisible realm seems abstract, it is also very real. It catches every baby’s attention. This magic is the reason my son, Owen, loves listening to music and playing games like peek-a-boo. It is what we all are reaching for when staring up at the stars or tapping in time to a song. We want to connect the world that we see and feel, the world that we are undeniably tied to in our everyday lives with the world of vast possibilities just beyond us.
Owen is now 9 months old. He is unwrapping a present at Grandma and Grandpa’s...a baby magician set! It comes with a magic wand, hat, and rabbit. Owen’s got a major advantage over the older, taller people standing around him as he unwraps his gift.
His brain is forging new pathways like crazy. (By 18 months, the brain stops making new pathways and spends the rest of life shutting down unnecessary ones.) He is just beginning to peek around the metaphysical corner when he claps his hands in anticipation of a cracking sound.
Gifts like this magic set will help him start to figure out basic cause and effect puzzles. From here his curiosity will grow and grow. Everything is possible to Owen. Some years down the road, he may even find himself wearing a magician’s cape.
For more of The Joy of Life, visit genemyers.com.
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