“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious.”
~ Carl Sagan
Living magically is a practice,
and living joyfully is also a practice.
No one ever gets it “perfectly” right and that’s OK.
In fact, allowing yourself the grace to get things wrong is one of the doorways into a joy-filled life.
Radical self-acceptance is also a doorway into joy.
Living curiously, learning to love yourself unconditionally is an act of devotion to your inner child, to your teenage self that rebels against the constraints others are trying to bind them to, and it is an act of devotion to your wise elder self who will be blessed to hold a heart full of magical memories.
You are in the right place if, deep in your heart, you’ve always known or hoped that life is more than fitting in, making do, and swallowing your voice until it turns bitter and burns your throat (or rots in your belly).
If you believe meanings matter and that learning how to find joy in whatever moments exist, welcomes, you are definitely in the right place!
I’ve been through a lot AND I’ve gotten pretty damn good at landing on my feet after a fall.
I used to live a lot of my life in a sort of waiting mode. The transitional or in-between spaces seen as just liminal spaces. Like a series of what felt like never-ending waiting rooms full of hard plastic chairs and bad muzak.
Then, one cold crisp clear January day, I realized that, technically, there is no such thing as a liminal space AND all of life is within the liminal.
By that I mean all of life is, well, all of life.
It is both now & later, before & after.
It’s the age-old truth that more than one thing can be true at the same time. Because life is both our uncertainty about the future & our here-and-now, ordinary mundane and sometimes magical moments. Yes, sometimes (rarely?) it is just an either/or situation, but, more often than not, even in those moments we can still find the ‘yes, and’ moments of magic, pockets of joy not meant to be taken for granted.
Truly, life is the ‘yes, and’.
Growing up in a high control religion amid the chaos and gaslighting my (suspected) narcissistic mother created, I learned early on that my unstoppable need to understand the world around me was not considered a loveable traigt.
To question (god/teachers/parents/anything) was a mortal sin that I could not help but commit over-and-over again.
Thankfully, I escaped the church as a teenager and have very little contact with my mother. The process of deconstructing and healing from the hidden beliefs those two influences had on me will be the work of a lifetime.
But one thing I know in my soul to be true:
Asking why? or what if? is not only OK, asking these types of questions are holy acts of curiosity.
Asking these questions (especially of ourselves), again-and-again, is another pathway into our joy, our magic.
These days, I live in a disabled body managing multiple chronic immune compromising conditions and a rare cancer that will haunt me for life. I am able to do this work here at grace & magic because of the unfailing support and encouragement of my husband.
I acknowledge the privilege I have in being a white, straight-presently cis-woman, while also acknowledging the oppression & othering I have experienced as a neurodivergent, disabled woman.
Two things can be true at the same time.
I have unearned privilege and undeserved marginalization.
I know many of you also live within such dichotomous realms. This is part of the AND we must navigate to forge our own magical, joy-filled paths.
What I’ve learned from falling apart, breaking down, is that we have the power to knit ourselves into new forms of our own designing. New forms that somehow, magically, fit our truest selves better than any of the masks we’ve tried on through all of our years of trying to fit in.
I’ve learned a resilient person isn’t someone who never breaks or shatters like glass, it’s someone who, after the shattering, has the conviction of self, the curiosity and the tools to knit themselves a new pattern, a new truer shape.
I’ve learned that magic is in the meanings we give to things, thoughts and moments AND we’re allowed to change whatever meanings we need to.
It’s why I first create grace & magic.
I know I’m not the only one.
We all need to joy, self-compassion and wonder that radical acceptance and brave hope can unlock.
I’m not perfect, or perfectly healed.
I’m simply a fellow human holding up my light in hopes that you might be able to see more clearly the paths of wonder open to you.
I invite you to make room for the magical.
I invite you to bravely practice radical acceptance of what is and radical curiosity of what might yet be to come.
I invite you to inhabit the joy that is your birthright.
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grace & magic support staff
Luna, Director of Silliness and Barking at Cats
Adopted at 8 months old, she’d never even been off the farm she was born on until the day she was driven to meet me. She wasn’t potty trained and she barely knew her name. *she’s come a looooong way since then!
Loves her Papa, the man who taught her that not all human males were dangerous. These days she’s positively smitten with him.
A giant goofness with cats inside our home AND loses her ever-loving mind when a neighbor cat has the audacity to step foot in *her yard.
Thinks sharing people food is the best AND (these days) will not steal off our plates even if left alone with them. Some of her current favorites include blueberry smoothies, her Papa’s cheese, broccoli and apples and tater tots.
Derek, Director of Support, Encouragement, Laughter, and Kisses 🙂
We met online. Seriously. I was typing up a message to him about being a fellow Batman fan when a message from him popped up, also about being a fellow Batman fan!
A night owl married with a woman drawn to the enchantment of the dawn.
An incredibly innovative, out-of-the-box creative human whose music is a favorite soundtrack while I’m writing. This one is my all time favorite.
This man can somehow craft a dad joke in pretty much any situation.
My best friend who I happen to still have a massive crush on too.
When I’m not here writing or creating you’ll often find me reading (history, romance, health, “self-improvement”), finding me hanging out with Derek watching Project Runway were we hold our own critiques as we’re the judges, working in one of my journals, bird watching out my bedroom windows, or simply radically resting my body/mind quietly so that I can get up and get to work again the next day because this place, these offerings, and most of all you who have honored me with your time here, are one of my deepest truest blessing in this challenging AND wonderful life.
Thank you so much for being here.
Love,
Kat
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