The Magic of 'Hatching'

Hatching is what you do for yourself when you push past the obstacles and barriers that are holding you back and come out of your shell, ready to learn how to fly.  In Ann Lamott's wonderful book Bird by Bird, she talks about recovering from having her tonsils out.  She had used all the pain medication they would give her.  When she asked for more they told her the pain was from not using the muscles of her throat and she should just chew some gum.  It was painful but she pushed past it and the pain soon went away.  One could wonder how many physical and mental muscles we have frozen by being afraid to use them.  Many the loss of energy we sometimes feel when we are starting out on a creative project is not tiredness but fear of flexing our creative muscles.  Maybe perfectionism or some other bad habit has us in a state of creative paralysis. In one of the Harry Potter movies there is a scene where a baby dragon hatches out of his shell.  The dragon has a bit of a horn on his beak to use to break out of the shell.  I suggest to all wise magicians that you too, are equipped with a spike of the tip of your beak to help you hatch yourself.  There may be a mother hen or a mother dragon around to help you chip out of the shell, but basically you are the one who has to push and chip until you can emerge into the opportunities that await you.  Flex your hatching skills.  You don't have to fly right away.  But until you push yourself past a few things, you don't have a chance to learn how to fly.  Take a chance and hatch yourself.  May the spark be with you.

The Magic Of Leadership

Except for Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter a magician or wizard is seldom seen as a leader. Instead, they just seem to act on the material world such as turning lead to gold. But when you think about it, leadership is indeed a high sort of magic. A lump of clay, or couch potato, becomes inspired and does great good in the world. Leaders are the ones who inspire and give others a sense of wanting to accomplish great tasks. They can exist anywhere in an organization. They don't have to have any formal designated power. In fact there are times when a person in a managerial position is so busy keeping track and controlling that actual productivity is stifled.
Leadership can refer to leadership of self and others. When you lead yourself you nurture, accept, choose goals, give yourself rewards along the way to the goal just as a great general or leader would do for his or her followers. In thinking about qualities of leadership you must remember that high visibility is not necessarily a needed quality of a good leader. A racehorse may be said to be leading the pack but that horse is not the inspiration for the other horses to run. They are running because they love to run and because of the encouragement of their jockey. A figurehead is not necessarily a leader. Inspiration is the key in leadership. Grassroots movements such as that which lead to the independence of India, lead my Mahatma Gandhi, are based on actions taken by large numbers of people inspired to a common purpose. So my suggestion for the day is this: Think about good actions that need to be taken by yourself or others. Then reach out to the magic that surrounds you for energy. Use that energy to inspire yourself or others to bring about a better life. May the spark be with you.