I liked this:

For me, one thing that makes me blissfully happy is hearing and watching the Sandhill Cranes in the morning. I hear them far away and know they’ll soon be overhead. This morning, as some of the fear was starting to creep in—worry over how I’ll get things done and if I’m doing enough, I heard them—their call very faint in the distance. As I stepped out in my pajamas onto the cool flagstones, looking skyward, I was blessed with hundreds of them in formation, glittering like silver in the morning light.

Then, the topic moved on to the magic of the word: ABRACADABRA. I’d never really thought much about this word or its origin, but it fascinated me. It means:

There was a old tradition—this word actually dates back to 1568—that if one wrote it on a piece of parchment, and each line wrote one letter less until it was just an “A” that it had magical powers and that the evil spirits would be expelled.

ABRACADABRA

ABRACADAB

ABRACAD

ABRACA

ABRAC

ABRA

ABR

AB

A

I thought about magic and belief and how hard it is sometimes to believe in ourselves. Just then, I looked up at the tiny vile of glittery pink “fairy dust” that my sister gave to me so many years ago. A tiny glass vile with a cork and a silver fairy wrapping her wings around it.

I lost my sister to cancer two years ago this month; it’s still hard to fathom. With all of our struggles and arguments and distance, she is one who believed in me far more than I realized—and as I hold this miniature treasure in my hands, I see her beautiful smile and I think,

and I pray for guidance as I go forth that I will make the most of the time I am blessed with here on this earth. Thank you, Amy, for today’s message.

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