It’s a Kind of Magic
Fish, Fiction & The Universe
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Hello Friends,
Happy Friday.
So we are out of half-term and back into the wondrous days of routine. Although, for all its positives, there’s the slightly undesirable side effect of responsibility which comes with routine.
For me, that looked like my daughter announcing, at 9pm on Sunday evening — “Mummy, by the way, I need a piece of filleted white fish for Food Tech tomorrow morning”.
Excuse me, what?
Thank God we live around the corner from a supermarket, and that it opens at 7am on weekdays.
I wonder, does it make me an unsupportive mother to say: “no darling, you absolutely cannot do Food Tech for GCSE.”
I jest - kind of, I’m not sure my nerves could handle graded, time sensitive food procurement.
Anyway, and maybe this is an effort to disassociate from routine reintegration, I have had magic on my mind this week.
I used to be an absolute magic non-believer in my youth. I had been sold the 1980’s white patriarchal form of magic — Paul Daniels sawing a scantily clad Debbie McGee in half.
I’m sorry no.
Even tiny five-year-old me knew that this was rubbish. That Daniels was a trickster. A liar.
As I’ve got older I’ve come to recognise real magic. It’s everywhere.
In fact, five-year-old me was really quite astute.
It has nothing to do with women in underwear being dismembered. It has everything to do with merely taking notice.
And as synchronicity would have it, a couple of things this week have reminded me of the quiet magic of noticing.
First, I have just finished reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
I’m not going to tell you anything about it—just, you should go and read it immediately.
If you have already read it then come and chat to me in the comments about it, because when I read books like this, I always long to be in a book group so that I can have in-depth conversations bookish conversations.
All I will say, is that it has a lot to do with quiet magic and the power of noticing — an ode to the appreciation of the world around us.
Go read it.
The second thing was these Milky Way Photographer of the year photos on The Guardian.
I mean - wow.
I know that these photographers have special equipment to be able to capture these, use special editing software etc. But still, it blows my mind that all of this is up there in the sky. Every night. Hidden in plain sight.
I wonder, if years ago, before light pollution this is what everyone could see on a clear night? I mean, no wonder past civilisations believed in magic and mysticism without question. How could you not when that was shining down on you.
All of this to say that yes, I believe in magic. It is in the quiet moments of noticing.
Although… if I could have the power to conjure recipe ingredients out of thin air? I would absolutely take it.
Until next week.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Becca x
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