Stop waiting on magic and start creating it

​I wrote the words below one year ago. When I wrote them, I thought they were a reflection on my first marathon 5 years ago. I thought they were a reflection on where I'd been in life. One year ago when I wrote them, I had no idea they were far more preparation for where I was going than a gathering of strength from where I'd come.

Because in the year since I wrote them, there have been many moments when I thought I'd collapse. Many moments when I WANTED to. But I didn't. And in that, there has been as much magic in my life as I've ever experienced.

Magic doesn't always feel good. Some days magic feels like hell, to be honest. Because magic doesn't always make struggles 'magically' disappear.

But you know what, there is NO magic like discovering you are a stronger human being than you ever imagined you could be.

None.

There is nothing like the magic that happens when you quit waiting for someone to wave a wand over your life, when you grab that wand and start performing a little magic of your own.

*** Re-written from July 24, 2020

Yesterday, I was listening to Matthew Futterman talking about his new book: Running to the Edge. During the conversation he said "where you think you are going to collapse, but then you don't, that's where the magic happens."

Isn't that true? That whether by plan or not, it's where we face incredible challenges - yet survive - that we learn beautiful things about ourselves and the world around us. It's where we discover we too often underestimated what we were capable of.

Marathon running taught me that lesson. At mile 20 of my first marathon I thought I would die. I can't go on, I cried. Then somehow I stumbled across the finish line.

At mile 20 - I thought I'd collapse. But I didn't - and magic happened.

The most magical part of that moment was discovering that magic happens at a place, and not a point in time. Magic is a place I can go visit whenever I'm willing to go there, and not something I have to wait around and hope will find me again one day.

When we wake up each morning and realize magic happens at the place where we once thought we weren't strong enough or smart enough or talented enough to go - and then we go to that place anyways - we have the opportunity to pick ourselves up and plant ourselves right smack dab in the middle of magic anytime we want to.

When Futterman talked, I looked back on the days with sadness when I believed the magic in life was beyond my control. I thought about the life I wasted, waiting on magic to come to me like a rabbit lifted out of a hat with the wave of a wand.

But that look was brief. Because you find hope when you find out that magic doesn't have to wait on the wand. You find hope when you discover you ARE the wand.

Magic happens when we stop living a life running from the things we fear will collapse us and start bravely running toward them.

Do it, and believe me, you'll discover magic is so much better than regret.