I Believe That Nostalgia Cultivates Magic

I believe that magic is an essence that can be cultivated just as we grow a garden or make a home. Magic is the unexplained. To me, it’s not flashy Potter spells or words engraved in magical rings but instead, it’s the awe and realization that something has a certain quality that is out of the ordinary. It’s realizing that not everything has an answer.

I believe that kind of magic can be cultivated if you allow it to be. Certain experiences just feel magical.

Nostalgia, to me, is a type of magic. It somehow transports you back to a feeling you once had based on experiences past. The raw power of an experience to pull you back in time like an H.G. Wells novel — to become a cerebral time traveler — is monumental.

My memories often wander back to a time when I grew from a teen into an adult, back in Ireland. I remember the way the landscape rolled with an accent of dry stone walls — framed by kissing trees. The sweet smell of a gentle rain mixed with fresh cut silage still lives in my senses, and the echoing clop of horse hooves winding down hedge-lined country roads still rings out in my mind from time to time.

Those memories are magic. I can’t explain how or why they still linger but they’re there. What made them so special to me?

My nostalgia wants to take me back, so I now learn how to make dry stone walls and curate my own little farm to reflect those rolling hills and whimsical greenery. I cut hay and hear my horses’ hooves clop over my barn’s concrete. Kentucky is no Ireland but I’ve found it can still cause those familiar feelings to well up in me all the same.

It’s my magic as I’ve come to know it. It’s the stuff that makes me feel like I’m living versus just “here”.

Nostalgia is a dangerous magic, though, because living in the past is no good. Someone much wiser than me once said that living in the past conjures depression while living in the future summons anxiety; navigating nostalgia has been a challenge in trying to overcome both.

How can you still enjoy the magic of the past without getting lost in it, without yearning to just go back?

How can you not fret about bringing that magic of the past to the future, like my stone walls and hay cutting, without getting anxious over if it will live up to expectations?

Finding that balance and bringing that essence to life in the present — not dwelling on the past or future, is truly finding what makes me “me” and that is my magic.

We are formed by our experiences, after all. Our minds and guts are shaped from each one. It’s only natural that we seek to replicate the ones that were particularly pivotal or complementary to who we feel we are.

Magic is the unexplained when it comes to our sense of self. It’s realizing that not everything has an answer, even the things that hold such positions of power within us — like nostalgia.

I can’t explain what my mind likes about dry stone walls or the sound of clopping hooves, but I can aim to re-create it because those experiences made me feel alive then and it turns out they still do now.

So, in this way, I believe that magic can be cultivated — and we all have our unique magic tricks to bring to life. I’m actively doing it with those stone walls, kissing trees and sweet smelling hay.

By learning what feels like magic to each of us, we learn to foster the feelings that add to that piece about why we’re even on this giant spinning marble to begin with. To me, living with that magic is all a part of it. It’s not a purpose but it certainly is a perk of being alive.

That’s the power of cultivating magic and I believe it’s possible because I’ve experienced what magic feels like to me.

I hope you’ll give a little extra love to those things that make you feel like “you”, today.

Keep the magic alive- Elle

[Originally published on Medium]