Dear Teacher with the Wand,
You're now the one who dips your hands in clay to fashion words that, when dried, come out looking like this.
I have never been more proud of you. Thank you for making others believe in the impossible every single day.
"Magic"
Magic
The power of influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.
Magic
see wonderful; exciting
Magic
Comes from the Latin (magus) which means
To be able.
Magic
David Copperfield has nothing on her brand of
Magic
The way she can make indifference disappear
Not with a flourish
But a quiet
[-poof!-]
Never to be seen or heard from again
She can saw carelessness in half
Pulls lessons from her party-size, 150% More FREE heart
Takes character traits- courage, kindness, perseverance, grit- from behind a kid’s ear
As he stares on incredulous,
Until he sees it for, and in, himself
Wondering where it came from
Magic
In the way she reads
Magic in the words she writes
The same old stories are enchanted when they waft from her lips
On a Crayola-colored breeze
Make a bee-line for your soul
Plant themselves like a seed in the patch of dirt you didn’t believe could grow.
Magic
As she scrawls out hope in a love letter, puts it in a mailbox and seems to know by instinct the street name, the house number the apartment and complex of every kid’s heart.
Doesn’t knock, but waits patiently
Until he’s able to open the door.
Magic
No postage required
For the love hand-delivered through every
Post-It note placed quietly on a desk
Every birthday card written in all caps
Ending with
“The world is better because you’re in it”
Every
Observation scrawled in the margin of a personal narrative
Not written to correct,
But to praise.
Every glance that says
I see you
You can do it
And you make me proud.
Magic
She makes dreams levitate
She inspires ambitions to soar
She sets a flock of a thousand kids free on graduation day, launches them into the world
And still they fly back to her.
Magic
She can multiply your confidence ten-fold before you realize your pocketbook full of fears has been snatched at the entryway of her door.
Magic
She can hold her breath and her bladder for 30 minutes (or at least until lunch)
In a tank filled with nothing but doubt
Others would drown
But she floats
Magic
Her costume is a lanyard
A school T-shirt she bought from the fundraiser
The homemade noodle necklace she wears like diamonds
The dress pants that are soiled at the knees from stooping to help, to smile at her children
Magic
In the cardigan sleeves she rolls up for her grand finale
She fashions the grandest wand out of a single Bic pen
Writes this week’s, this year’s, this life’s vocabulary word to remember on every kid’s heart
Stamps it like a bathroom pass
So they don’t leave her classroom without it
So they remember
So it gives them eternal permission
Magic—noun
Is a person
(That’s you)
Magic—noun
Is a place
(That’s wherever you are)
Magic—noun
Is a thing
(It’s in every thing and every one you see, my dear—)
Magic—noun
Is an idea (We’re all able)
Magic (verb)
Is an action
(To believe, to love, even when we don’t yet understand.)
You're the real magician, don't you see it?
-CDB