Your Secrets

For years I’ve ended most gigs, whether a course or a conference or a magic show, with fire.

Endings are important, and a final message revealed with a flash of fire, sticks in the mind, burned in, bidden or not.

Mostly the fire is delivered with a sheet of flash paper, a magician’s prop, dressed as a piece of ancient parchment, rolled into a secret scroll bound with a drop of wax, billed as an obscure guru’s secret of a happy and successful life.

Before I light the scroll, and reveal its secret at the moment it disappears in fire, leaving no ash or trace, I often ask of my audience, “If you were the guru, writing a secret formula for happiness or success on the scroll, what would you write?”

A few usually offer a message then and there, others would include one on their feedback form, many would email their thoughts later, sometimes weeks or years later.

Some are practical messages, born out of the course or talk content, ‘decide what you want, do everything to make it happen’, or ‘set a goal, make a plan, take action’ or simply a success strategy in three words, ‘do it now’.

Practically all would work, to some extent- ‘look for the good in people, particularly yourself’, ‘always be kind’, ‘don’t rest, work’, ‘play with your kids more’, celebrate success’, ‘learn’, ‘don’t quit the things that matter’, love people, not things’, and the regular one-word suggestion, ‘laugh’.

Funnily, my least favourite, probably the only one that would never make it onto any scroll of mine, is also the most commonly offered, ‘be yourself’ , ignoring the superpower we all possess, our ability to change.

My most favourite, so far, only offered a single time, is to simply ‘look up’, because it literally makes our world bigger, and never fails to make us feel better, and on occasion can have a profound impact, can change everything.

Over the years I’ve received enough of these messages to fill hundreds of secret scrolls, and every one makes me feel lucky and incredibly thankful that someone has dared to share their own personal magic spell. More than that, every secret shared has reminded me that we already have everything we need to create the life we wish for, already have enough wisdom of our own, just sometimes need to trust ourselves more, or have a pinch more desire, or a dash of daring to begin.

Dear Reader, if you would like to know what I actually wrote on the Secret Scroll, come to a gig sometime, or just message me and ask.

Until then, I wish you good days, magical days when you remember to look within, and find your fire still burning.

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