Daily Compass

Joanna Fontaine Crawford (former CLF Learning Fellow) has famously written about the magic of Santa, and the ways in which communities conspire to keep Santa a man of magic, mystery and wonder. In her essay “Proud to be a Level Four Santa,” she writes, “Too old for Santa Claus? Ah, no. For us, the question is, ‘Is Jane old enough for Santa Claus?’ As a Level One, she only knows the door. It’s a beautiful, magical door … but beyond it lies grandeur and awe she can’t even imagine.”

When have you helped a child participate in something magical and mysterious?

We conjure love every day through our actions and our relationships. We conjure love when we participate in the liberation of others. We conjure love when we spread the news that all of us–no matter our background, or identity, or even the worst thing we have done in our lives–are worthy of love.

Conjure love today.

The magical emails and posts from Daily Compass are brought to you by the Church of the Larger Fellowship, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation without borders or walls. If you have the means to do so, we would appreciate your help with our year-end giving campaign, Love Larger.

Months of sun, hot and hazy
melt slowly away
to days bright and cool;
nights of the harvest moon.
Mother Nature, she knows well the change
as leaves turn from green to gold.
The Magic Season has come again.

The hoot of an owl, howl of a wolf,
carried on the air,
the crunch of crisp leaves
Like steps of passing spirits
enthralling the very soul.
The veil between the worlds
thin as a cauldron’s gurgle. 

It is the moon,
shining full and ghostly pale.
The stars,
like a blanket of spangles on a velvet sky.
The rustle of nocturnal creatures,
the owl, bat, and wolf.
It is the night,
It is Magick.
-Gary Farlow (a CLF Member incarcerated in SC)

Where do you find magic in the cycles of nature?

Magic is a gift that I hold on to in this place, because it helps me hold on to the core value of love. I have experienced a lot of hardship during my time of incarceration. It is only through my exercise of magic that I feel able to survive the dark times that I’m going through.  I have to use my magical powers every day to not give up. I use magic to refrain from succumbing to the darkness and to hatred for the people who continuously seek to bring out a demon that I buried a long time ago. -Jonathan Hayes (a CLF Member incarcerated in IN)

When have you relied on forces you did not understand to help you through hardship?

Have you ever made cooking magic? Sometimes, all it takes is a pinch of salt or a teaspoon of lemon juice to alter the chemistry of an entire dish. A little instant decaf coffee in your chocolate cake, maybe, or an eighth of a teaspoon of cardamom in the blueberry pie. It’s science, and art, and magic, all wrapped up together.

When have you experienced surprising cooking magic?