I have had more than one person approach me lately about spirituality. They seem to wonder what my "secret" to awakening my spiritual side is. I can't help but chuckle when I hear this question. I am amused by those who seek my "secret" when there's actually no secret to it. The entire key to my spirituality is my discovery of magic.
Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that I have discovered the nature of magic. Too often, people equate magic with spellwork. Magic in this light becomes a series of ritual gestures, words, and correspondences to be utilized. In this view, magic becomes a mechanical process with neither soul nor life. Magic becomes something we do rather than something that is.
But as I sit here in a restaurant, I see magic. I see it in the face of a small girl sitting a few tables from me. Her smile is fueled by joy and wonder as she plays with her own reflection in the mirror next to her. Her excited squeals to her mother - who is probably more than a little embarrassed by now - are full of more magic than many of the workings in which I have participated.
This little girl knows - quite possibly without realizing it - what I have spent over three years trying to relearn. She knows that this world is full of wonder and excitement - the very things of magic. And while she is but three years old, she probably has a greater grasp of this truth than I do.
Spirituality and magic are not things that we do. They simply are. They exist as well without our conscious participation as they do with it. Ours is not to create either, but to discover them. It is ours to open our eyes to the magic of a sunset. It is up to us to feel the magic in the autumn breeze. It is up to us to hear the magic in the child whose squeals of delight embarrass her mother. It is up to us to realize that magic is life itself and that life is the source of magic. Once we realize this, all other "secrets" to spirituality fall away.