The Magic of Christmas

It was a fantastically windy afternoon, rain starting, a storm was moving in, and I was standing at the upper dry lot calling out for Bodie and Pinkie who had set off on an unsanctioned tour of the neighboring ranch.

I was wearing ear muffs and my hood pulled overhead, and yelled louder just to hear myself. My calls went unheard, carried away in the opposite direction by the wind.

I stopped calling and fretting for a moment. All was silent, and muffled, just the wind whistling through the needles of the pine trees and the berries of the junipers.

I turned and there she was. A big momma deer was standing at the fence inside the dry lot. She looked at me as if to ask if she would be okay jumping over the fence and continuing on her journey. I smiled and said nothing.

Like magic she lifted herself up and over the fence. There was no running start, no grunt as she launched herself over, no exhalation or loud thump as she hit the ground and no sound of a push as she skipped off.

She just rose, tucked her legs under her earth colored plump body, glided over the top of the 4' fence and landed, without a sound.

Was I momentarily deaf?

It was poetic in every sense. It was a cartoon rendition, a claymation skit, a hand drawn illustration, a dream we've all had, wrapped in one.

My jaw dropped at the vision, the silence, the tranquility, the grace, the magic powder she used to fly like that.

Maybe that is what the magic of Christmas is.

It's beauty, peace, love, kindness, humility and joy. We don't have to search hard for it. If we stand still, be quiet, breathe deeply, open our eyes, open our hearts, the magic will come to us and unfold.