Lately I have been feeling like I need to channel my inner wizard and make a miracle. 2020 has been filled with days where I was covered in a black veil.
I’m referencing Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard by Echo Brown, released earlier this year. I have never read an autobiographical book filled with magical realism before, but I loved it so much. Brown’s method of storytelling is captivating yet touches on very relevant social commentary of a Black girl growing up in the inner city.
Black Girl Magic
On a quick aside, I’m starting to dislike the phrase Black Girl Magic. Sometimes the phrase can feel so limiting. How can I feel magical when I am often weighed down by my very human and non-magical emotions? If I am magical, I should be able to have the power to overcome everything, but Black girls are so powerless in this society.
However, this story was the magic I didn’t know I needed in my life. Maybe I’m a hater for saying it’s magical realism. I’m only hating a little because I’m not a wizard too, if that’s the case (or at least I haven’t quite discovered my power yet).
Brown’s life was filled with so much pain and trauma, but I love despite all this, she still had a life filled with so much magic. A little magic is great for our survival, and 2020 are times where we all could use some magic.
🎶There can be miracles, if you believe🎶
And even with all that magic she possessed, Brown still felt powerless at times, and so did all the other wizard women around her. They couldn’t change a lot about their circumstances or the plight of their people. But they survived, and they made miracles when they could. Miracles are instances when wizards slightly alter reality in order to send messages to people. These miracles are performed to try to change the trajectory of a situation. In these miracles, I am reminded of all the Black women I have been surrounded by my whole life. They definitely made magic every day.
I used to be convinced large scale change was the best way to make the world a better place. And while I still feel like the system needs to change before things get better for people, but thinking about overthrowing the system (without burning the whole thing down) is overwhelming.
What keeps me going is the small magic I have control over. Miracles don’t have to be these grand gestures, but they can be small seeds you hope grow into something bigger. It takes a tree decades to grow, but it started from a seed too.
Small miracles
There is great cause for the world feeling real hopeless lately. Things don’t seem like they are getting any better but keep getting worse. For the sake of our mental health, let’s think about shifting our power to trying to make small miracles, in our lives and the lives of others. We can’t change the system on our own as just one person. But I can tell like 3 people, who can tell 3 people, who can tell 3 people. Those small miracles can really add up.
What miracles can you make today?
