The Moment

And there goes another.

Magic doesn't work the way you think.

I am here. We are here. Those moments, those opportunities, those insights. Choices. Decisions.

Sometimes you can sense it. That moment, just upon waking or sleeping, when all possibilities are possible? Or that moment of clarity, when you know the exact right thing to say? Or that little hesitation, that pull in your gut, that says “That way is dangerous, take the other path"? As if the universe is holding its collective breath, waiting for what you will say, or do, or intend.

Now you know what I mean.

Some people have a talent for it. They develop it, nurture it, and become amazing people. They have had many names over the years: witches, wizards, midwives, shamans, lamas, Eagle Woman. Most of them you never hear about, because along with the sense, they also realize how easily it can tip over into manipulation. They stay in the middle – it gives them more room to actually get things done. Too much crowding at the front, for the ones who claim to do the work.

Beware the ones who “lead” from the rear! To those, you are nothing but cannon fodder or shock troops. In times of crisis or instant decision, a true visionary is the one who leads by example. They may bark orders, but they are working just as hard as they wish you to work. One who stands up and spouts words to sway your emotions, to send you off while they wave from a safe location, these do not have our inspiration. They may have the power to persuade, but it is not from our kind. Ours is of the individual, to make a thing of beauty. Or of cleverness, or of benefit, or of protection. Persuasion to join in that effort comes later, if at all, and from other sources.

Many who would have had the gift have been crushed. Teachers, parents, officers of the law and court, priests and pastors and nuns. People who should know better, people who pervert their wisdom into machination. Or a person's potential is wiped out by war, disease, accident, genetics, or even unfortunate circumstances when the very opposite of our essence gathers and destroys life and possibility. Many times, the insight that comes with healing is too slow, or too much time has passed, or the damage is too much to overcome.

Or politics, of course. Or greed, from corporate to individual. Or jealousy. How many projects and ideas have been buried because the profit of destruction is greater in the short term? How many people fired because they stood up for what was right? How many times people tried to better their lives but were the wrong skin color, gender, age, religion?

We follow. Like sparks, we coalesce where the conditions are right. Humans are both wave and particle, remember? It's not that you call out, per se, but the waves oscillate and undulate in patterns imperceptible, in eddies undefined. And in the pattern of this universal dance, a moment of pause.

We are there.

And a touch, a movement, and we spin away. Will you follow?

Otherwise, the moment -

Is lost.