Abracadabra!

“Abracadabra!” That three year old face with the tangled blond hair smiled in powerful anticipation of the magic that might fountain out of her wooden dowel magic wand as Lucy pointed it in my direction. “You have now been turned into Eleanor!” This means that I needed to imitate her 22 month old younger sister who navigates through the world with limited language but stealth determination.

Quietly independent, Eleanor focuses on her path and like a drone as she zeros in on the next target of her attention. Lucy, the three year old is delighted with my imitation of a 22 month old, walking determined-ly toward the gigantic rubber ball or the swing set. She giggles as my antics must somehow seem absurdly familiar to her.

We continued in our play as I was turned into her Mommy, her Daddy, her older sister and even into the “other” grandma. The force of her magical powers over me surprised the entire audience as I forced myself to reflect on and wonder what character traits and/or physical movements represented the people in her circle of love, which currently defines her world.

That world, now a little more than three years old for her, has contained the primary players that have influenced her development so far in this world. And yet now, not even to the half way point of her first decade, she has added a year of preschool, and thus that circle now includes school friends, teachers and neighborhood friends.

I can already see her world expanding beyond her family into the space around her like soap bubbles piling up in the dish pan in the family home’s sink. My character in this magical life play requires that I wear many hats as I hone in on the primary players in her life.

As I wondered about her world, and the people that influence her, I found myself reflecting on the primary players in my own life. How big and how many are my circles after six decades? What is my story now? I am deeply aware of the choices I now have to determine my circles now. How broad, how deep are my love circles?

I can choose to write my story day by day. Which influences and experiences and people do I choose to be in my circles of life?

Instantly it came to me. Abracadabra! Age and wisdom offers its own magic!