It’s my favourite part of the day.
Every night when it’s time to turn out her light, I sit on the end of my nine-year-old daughter’s bed and I hold her hand as we chat in the dark.
Our topics are as varied as the thoughts which bubble through her mind.
“Do you think I’ll ever meet Hugh Jackman?”
“Did you ever get in trouble in class?”
“Will I ever get to see snow?”
“How come we have to do homework?”
“Did you always want to be a writer?”
And last Tuesday night she asked me, “Do you believe in magic?”
Do I believe in magic? I took a moment to think about it.
Yes, I finally said. I do. Life is full of magic. The key, I told her, is to pay attention.
There is magic in the tiniest moments. When you are so desperately missing your best friend and a postcard arrives from her in the letterbox the very day when you’re feeling especially blue. When you go on a beach holiday and your mum forgot to pack your dominos set only to find the exact same set in the games cupboard at the rented beach house. When you hear about a seven-year-old girl in foster care who is dreaming of an Elsa costume, exactly like the one you’ve outgrown that’s hanging in your cupboard. It’s in that first wobbly bike ride without mum hanging on. A discovery of fifty cents on the footpath while you’re walking to school. It’s in custard tarts and summer swims and fairy lights.
Of course magic is not reserved only for the young. It’s in the lives of grown-ups too.
There is magic in unexpected friendships. Picking up the right book at exactly the right time and it giving you the clarity you need. It’s when money comes in when an eye-watering bill is due. A cat or dog who comes over for a snuggle when you need it most.
And there is magic when you hear that a friend who has battled years of infertility and countless, heartbreaking cycles of IVF is suddenly 19 weeks pregnant.
Listen: Deb Knight on going through 14 rounds of IVF. (Post continues.)
PREGNANT!
This week my dear friend and Hot Tomato breakfast radio host 41-year-old Emily Jade O’Keeffe announced she was pregnant with her much-wanted and longed for and dreamed about second child.