Magic!

Unfortunately I was readmitted to the hospital last week due to complications with my new defibrillator. I am now recovering from an emergency surgery to replace the leads. Hopefully I'll be home and on my healing path to a full recovery today. As cliche as it sounds, I never would have imagined myself spending the better part of month in the hospital. Life is sometimes like a Belgian fog, it floats in silently, and without warning your orientation, your sense of direction and purpose are blanketed. Suddenly it is impossible to know where you are, or where you are going. I know from experience though that eventually it lifts and the landscape takes on a familiar, comforting compass point. I'm waiting for the fog to lift.

A cool, magical breeze blew in last night, diffusing some of that fog. A young man, Ellison, visited our room to entertain my room mate and I with magic tricks. He is an occupational therapist at Toronto Western Hospital by day, and in the evenings he volunteers his time as a magician. For twenty minutes he beguiled us and made us laugh. As the Mastercard commercials say, "Priceless".

Before he began Ellison asked each of us if we had ever performed magic. Dianne (another patient who was visiting with us at the time), immediately said "Yes". He asked her when. Without skipping a beat she replied, "When I gave birth to my three children". Again, "Priceless".

Wisely, Ellison also asked us (although slightly more tentatively after Dianne's response to his first question) what we liked most about magic. I replied, that I most loved the suspended reality, fantasy. Ellison explained that he most liked connecting with people and making them smile.

I gave him a package of dakbands. Perhaps the magic will travel.