Potemkin village

Dan Fogelberg said, "there's a magic every moment." I would agree, and make the thought even more precise. There's no magic in the world if you look at life as something that occurs over time, but if you can literally narrow it to an instant - or as close as is attainable by the neural feedback system of the human mind - something magical indeed does happen. For one thing, you can ignore pain. Just choose to disregard it for that split second, perhaps telling yourself you'll deal with it in another moment. For another, you can resolve to feel joy, choose fascination over frustration for a single instant regarding a single thing. Just do it for a second, pull those mouth corners into an expectant smile. Lastly, you can relax completely if you choose, just for an instant, just by breathing out and letting go.

The trials man suffers as he plies his way from cradle to grave have been well documented by thinkers from the Greeks to the quantum physicists, from the fundamentalists to the humanists and beyond. But in an instant, all philosophy fades. It doesn't matter if you are bent on correctness, or saving for a future. It doesn't matter the color of your skin, the stamps in your passport, the letters after your name. If you are willing to let go, to resume the childhood dream of anyplace and anytime, you can shape a single instant into whatever you want it to be, can narrow all fears and insecurities till they are vanishingly thin, can conjure a magical sunrise out of the bleakest milieu - transforming it into something mysterious and wonderful. There IS a magic every moment, should you decide on the spot to invoke it.

And instants stand back to back to back, soliders in an infinite parade celebrating the past and future, and should you choose to remain present and focused, you can string magical moments together like beads in a necklace and stretch villain time to do your bidding. All it takes is the will right now.