Invoke the magic in others
Story One - The wizard
One of the sites has a well in the side of a rock face called the Wizards Well and if you look above it, carved in the rock, there is a face with the words “Drink of this and take thy fill for the water falls by the Wizard’s Will”. My 5 year old son Ethan (I chose his name as I always wear an Ankh the Egyptian symbol of life, and Ethan means life) was particularly taken with this with lots of questions as to whether the Wizard could become real or not. I told him, in good Peter Pan style, that if he believed in him then he would always be real. This only encouraged further questioning as to when, where and how the Wizard changed form. These I tried to answer in a way that I would not spoil the enchantment and dispel the magic. The best bit was when we got back to the car and Ethan said to me ‘Dad, if you see the wizard will you say hello’, I replied ‘ If you liked it here maybe you’ll see him next time we come’. This produced a big smile and he can’t stop talking about Wizards now. On the way home he said ‘Thank you Dad, I’ve had a good day today’.
The two of us we went and fed the ducks and then went for a walk in the local woods. Just a short way into the woods there is a bench in a clearing near to a stream and we both sat there just enjoying the day and basking in each others company when I decided to ask him what he could see. In response to this he lit up, and then went on for some time in his limited vocabulary to point out elephants hiding behind trees, monkeys swinging from the branches and tigers prowling ‘over there’ as he put it.
Another two wonderful days and another two magical memories. I’ll never be able to pass either of those places again without being reminded of those special moments and those sparks of inspiration, imagination and enchantment I brought into mine, and in turn my children’s lives. This has set me on a journey to fill their lives and my memories with many shared moments such as these and I hope that by reading this it will inspire you to do the same. Take care and invoke the magic.
Damian