Childhood Magic

1697

By: Suzanne Reisler

Now that spring is well on its way, the stores are filled with fun items for children to play with.

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Items such as, street chalk, skipping rope, pinwheels, yo-yos, big plastic bouncy balls, pails & shovels are gleefully displayed in the stores.   I want them all! I want the wonder years again.  Unfortunately, my children have grown up and I really don’t have a purpose for buying these things. Regardless of this fact, I do!

Susan Reisler, Rhonda Massad, West Island, Childhood

Yes! I buy myself a pinwheel every year.  They are so pretty and when they spin, light reflects off of them in a beautiful way.  Of course, as an adult I enjoy this in the privacy of my own surroundings.  It sort of seems silly for an adult to enjoy children’s toys, but I do.  Actually, I give pinwheels to some of my friends and family.  Simply to remind them that spring is here and being playful is so dear.

Occasionally, I have written messages on my friend’s driveways using street chalk.  Happy Anniversary! Congratulations on the half-marathon! Happy Birthday to you!  I suppose no one can escape my childish escapades.

Sometimes I wonder if I am simply immature for my age?  I hope I am.  Who wants to grow-up entirely anyways? Childhoods hold magic that sometimes quickly disappear with age.

Years ago when my youngest son was around 5 years old, I was telling him about rainbows.  He didn’t believe they truly existed.  He thought they were something like unicorns, mythical and not real.  For a long time, I let him think that rainbows weren’t real and had magical powers.  I waited for the right moment to explain the truth.

During a brief summer rain storm, I saw a rainbow.  Quickly, I put him in my car and we drove to a top of a small mountain.  It was from this perch he was able to see the grandest of grand rainbows.  He couldn’t believe it was real and it was huge.  We stayed long enough to see a second rainbow form.  The double arcs were incredible, magical and unbelievable. 

On occasion, a very small rainbow will form in my home.  This is due to light hitting a glass door in my den.  The glass is beveled and when light hits it, a prism forms and a rainbow appears on the floor.  This is something similar to the illustration found on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover. When this happens, I am able to show my son that he can actually feel a rainbow on his skin.  Although, it simply feels like a warm light, to him it felt like magic.  If magic has a feeling, I suppose this is what it might be.

Suzanne Reisler, Childhood, Rhonda Massad, west Island Blog

Childhood toys carry with them the magic of our youth.  There is no need to keep the magic in the past.  Bring it out and enjoy youthful pleasures, now! 

My suggestion is to “gift yourself”!  Go to a store and buy a toy you used to love as a child.  Play with it alone or with a friend.  Skipping rope is used by adults as a fitness tool.  When was the last time you skipped rope?  How’s about buying a yo-yo or a big plastic bouncy ball?

I know my suggestions sounds juvenile, they are! That’s the purpose.  It’s a guarantee to make you smile, reminisce, and feel youthful, perhaps even silly.  Silly is great!

Give it a whirl and a twirl, be a kid again.

Suzanne Reisler Litwin is an author/writer/columnist/educator. She contributes every Monday morning to the West Island Blog’s Keeping it Real Column. 

She is an instructor at Concordia University in The Centre for Continuing Education. Suzanne is a freelance contributor to The Suburban newspaper.   She is the author of the children’s book, The Black Velvet Jacket. She lives in Montreal, Canada with her 3 children, Allyn, Taylor, and Duke and her husband Laurie. Suzanne contributes regularly to West Island Blog under her column Keeping it Real.  Please visit her website  www.suzannereislerlitwin.com  to read more of her published articles, books, and poetry.