In this @ecotrain pop-up question, we're asked: Do you believe in magic? Have you ever seen real magic, or what some people might call a miracle. . or is magic just a trick of the mind?
I have so many stories that would explain how magic has unfolded in my life, but I would have to write a book. Instead, I will try to shine some light on my experiences and keep it short. The book might still follow though, like magic...

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Magic in, and all around us

First of all, I would like to talk about the magic that is everyday life, but which we don't always remember to see as such.
The magic of life itself. It begins when a little seed starts to germinate and turns into a plant or flower, or even a tree.
When a child is conceived, and little tiny cells turn into a human being. Or the same with animals. When a caterpillar does its thing and turns into a beautiful butterfly. Some call it God, some call it the divine plan, science, and there are many other terms for it, but whatever we may call it, it is truly magical. Or the miracle of life.

I mean: from an egg to this majestic bird below...it's a miracle.

my own photo

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And then we have these stories of miracles that happened to people. We hear them all the time. I know I do. The most miraculous story I have heard lately, that left a huge impact was that of a man who tried to commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. Long story short: right when he jumped, he knew he had made a big mistake and decided he didn't want to die. But when he hit the water, he hurt his legs and spine and was paralyzed. Still, he fought and tried to swim with just his arms when a sea lion held up his legs and helped him get out! One of the rescuers told him that he was the only one that survived this jump since he was there... When I hear that story, I thought: there is no other explanation than that somehow this sea lion was there, at the right time, and the right place, and it's nothing short of a miracle that the animal knew instinctively what to do. Magic right? The man now is a motivational speaker, and without a doubt, he helps a lot of people that are feeling low, and find themselves in a situation that they don't see a way out of. He continues the magic by saving others.

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My story

As a child, I grew up in a family with two parents and a few siblings. My mother was a non-practicing Catholic, and I doubt that she ever believed everything they had told her in her life. My father was an atheist. My siblings and I were all different, of course, how it should be, but still: I was the outsider that never shared any of their ideas or opinions. I was always called the dreamer, told to be more realistic, and so on. You get the drift. I went to a Catholic school, several really, but religion was never really pushed where I lived. Neither in Germany where I lived from age 3 to 11.5 nor in Holland after that.
However, the stories they told us from the Bible, especially the ones of Jesus healing people had always intrigued me. But it wasn't long until I discovered that there are regular people who do extraordinary things, and they are not Jesus, so I knew at a young age that the Catholic or any Christian religion wasn't my cup of tea. Somehow I felt there was something to it, but it wasn't what the book or the priests/teachers tried to make us believe.

As I got older, I became more interested in the world of magic, or Wicca, the esoteric, or the occult, or whatever the name you want to give it.
I read as many books about the subject as I could, but of course, because I was an impatient teenager, I sometimes skipped things and would go straight to the 'good stuff', meaning the spells. I dabbled with those a bit, never anything to do with demons or such, I wasn't that crazy, but still enough that people would worry if they knew. And I would never do anything out of revenge or anger, just little things to 'help' me. I have seen with my own eyes, and felt how these things worked exactly the way I wanted it to happen, but also how it can turn against you because...well, stupidity. Then I met a girl, I met her through her mother really, and we became friends. I would frequent their house and there was something about that family that made me come back time and time again. They were Italians by nationality, and Catholic, but they were closer to gypsies than anything else even though they lived in a house. The mother had an altar with religious pictures of Mary, Jesus, and some saints, but also some other things that didn't seem to have anything to do with the church. Things that I recognized because I had read about them in my books. Long story short: this woman taught me a great deal about life in general, and about energies and the way things work.
She was an amazing human being, who always helped others when they needed help. She even cleaned her elderly neighbour's house and cooked for her, never asking anything in return.

It so happened, that the whole family went through something quite upsetting and it seemed like the person, or better: persons, who had been and were doing these awful things to them were getting away with it. One night when I was at their house, the mother was performing a ritual and asked if I wanted to stay and learn. Of course, I did, because I was always intrigued by the things she did and the mystery of it. She performed something I later learned was a banishing spell. To banish those evil people from their lives. Less than two weeks later, one of them was arrested for something in the past, and probably something he never thought would come down to haunt him. I call it nothing short of a miracle because the case he was arrested for had been buried and written off as unsolved for years and it was by chance that the police came upon the evidence that put him and two others in prison for a long time. His parents, the other two who had tried to make that family's life a living hell, moved to another country not long after that. I was stunned! If this wasn't magic, then I didn't know what was. Was my friend's mother a witch? I wouldn't dare to say she was, she was different and special, however, I don't think she was doing anything a regular person wouldn't be able to do. When talking to my friend about it, all she said was: 'Yes, she does those things...'

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My time in Asia

I can't even begin to describe all the things that happened in Asia, that could be called magic. If I would, I'd be writing that book now.
But one thing has always stayed with me, and I think it was what most impressed me there. I was living in Jakarta, Indonesia at the time, and two of my friends, one from Singapore and one local, brought me on a road trip to Bandung, a few hours drive from Jakarta. The local friend told me about this man who lived in the middle of the jungle on the mountain there, and the more he told me, the more I wanted to visit this man. He was a local Dukun, or shaman, and kept to himself, but he worked for the president of Indonesia (Suharto at the time) and what he did, was quite astonishing. Whenever the president had important guests, he would bring them to play golf, but in Indonesia, there's always a chance that one finds snakes on the golf course. This man's job was to remove those snakes. As the story goes, he could get bitten, and no harm would come to him. He seemed immune to the bites. Of course, I wanted to meet that man! So we did. After a lovely drive, we had to park the car and walk the rest. Only a few minutes, but still enough to enjoy all the magic of the stunning jungle around us. The man's house was nothing more than a little hut, with a couple of stairs leading to the entrance of his palace, as he called it. The man greeted us from the porch. I remember thinking that he was a bit out of place because he was very tall for an Indonesian. But he was friendly and with the true Indonesian warmth that I had become to know so well in my time there, he first went to greet and hug his friend and welcomed us into his home. We walked into the tiny house, with just enough space for a little kitchen area, a living room with large cushions to sit on and a door to his bedroom.

It was dark, and when my eyes became adjusted after the glaring sun outside, I noticed a large cat sitting there, not a pet cat exactly, but a black panther. At first, I thought it was a statue, but then he moved his head slowly. My heart jumped, and our other friend who came in behind us backed out of the door. The other two started laughing and the dukun explained that there was nothing to worry about, that he was a 'friend' and that he had two more big friends. A little more at ease, I curiously observed the amazing animal, when the man said: 'Yes you can, he likes the attention.' He had read my thoughts because in my mind I had asked: 'I wonder if I can touch him.' So I did. My heart still beating like crazy, I touched and stroked the big boy's head and back. And when I moved away from him, he followed and threw his body against my legs as if he wanted to say: 'Go on, don't stop.' I loved him and the feelings were quite mutual. What an amazing animal!
I heard that my new friend had been rescued by the man when he was only a little cub without a mother. He told me that Black Panthers in Asia are leopards, in South America they're Jaguars. The 'other two' were a Sumatra Tiger and another regular Leopard, and he told us that they were 'out' at the moment, but would probably be back in a day or so. He explained that they were all rescues, but that he never forced them to stay. 'My door is always open, if they want to go they go, if they want to stay they stay. And they decided to stay.'

But when I thought, I had heard it all, I was told the most magical thing of all. He could 'talk' to them, and he 'understood' what they told him.

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A cat-whisperer?

Well, sure...but long before I had ever heard of anyone whispering to animals and be heard by them. We then had tea and the man told me that if someone would want to become an apprentice, they could. If they were to stay with him for three days, he said, they would be able to talk to any animal and have them do whatever they wanted, if they stayed for a week, they could be bitten by any snake, and never be harmed. I heard that, and wanted to stay! My travel friends, however, didn't want to just leave me there, and of course, they had valid reasons. But I nearly begged them to leave me there.
They convinced me to leave with them, with some good arguments, one being the transport back to the city. So I left with them, promising my return some day. Not long after that, the election riots started in Jakarta and most foreigners left for their own safety. And so did I. I never went back there, and till today, I still regret not staying with him in the first place. It sure would have made for a nice trick later, when I moved to Vegas if I could have made Sigfrid and Roy's tigers do whatever I asked them to do.
Jokes aside: it was definitely one of the moments that had a huge impact on me. I will never forget that, and will always have fond memories of that day and especially the dukun and his feline friend. Magic? Absolutely!

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My daughter and the fairies

When I had my eldest daughter, I had just left my American husband behind in Las Vegas 6 months before that. I didn't file for divorce until she was 4 years old. However, due to some misunderstandings, and the paper-work not being quite what they needed, the judge ruled the marriage as invalid, since I was married in Las Vegas. I should have known then that he was mistaken, but I never thought to question a judge since I thought he knew what he was doing. And my lawyer never questioned it either. So we left it at that.

When my daughter was 6 years old, we planned a trip to Belize. She needed to have her passport renewed so we went to the passport office to get this sorted. Everything went well, the birth cert only had my name on it, since I had never registered my marriage in the Netherlands, and they had never asked anything about it. She already had an expired passport, and that hadn't been an issue either. Somehow the lady at the office pulled up something about the court and when she asked about it, I told her that I had been married, but also what the judge had said, and I even presented her the court documents that stated his ruling. I told her that 'the judge would know best, right?' but she said that she wasn't sure, and she would ask for advice from her superiors and if we could come back the next day. Now, I am not sure if these people get hired because they are assholes, or if they turn assholes as soon as they have a job like that (state workers who can't get fired) but this woman was an exceptional asshole of a woman. Now, mind you, I had also told her that my daughter's father wasn't in our lives, that we didn't even know where he was at the time, basically that he didn't care or do anything to make us believe he did. When we walked back into the office, she asked me to sit down, told me: 'I looked it up, and found out that you are married after all', she then leaned back in her seat and with a smug look on her face she turned the PC screen and said: 'Look!'
It was the marriage document, from the recorder's office in Clark County, Nevada...
It was the first time I saw it because somehow, I was never able to pull it up in the records. It added to the reasons why I believed the judge must have been right.

An important thing to note is that I was 5 months pregnant with my second child at the time, and my hormones didn't exactly bring out the best in me. I exploded! I was about ready to pull that woman across the counter and beat the crap out of her (and that's SO not me). I asked her what on earth she had thought to do such a thing and that, by doing this, she had now given power to a man who had never even as much as shown any interest in his daughter or our lives. Furthermore, we didn't even know where he lived at the time, so there was no chance of us getting his signature for a passport, nor a court ruling for the same. I pretty much wished the woman everything bad under the sun and left the building crying. What the hell were we going to do now? Our trip was planned to happen a few weeks later, and it looked like we wouldn't be able to go at all, or I would have to leave my daughter behind! WHO did this woman think she was? Now, I also have to add, that even though those records were public records at the time (they changed that now, you have to pay to see them now), she had no business looking for them, it was just not in her job description and as I later heard from her manager: she was not allowed to pull them up out of the records without my permission or a court order. However, this didn't do us any good now.

When I spoke to my daughter about the incident and explained to her that we probably wouldn't get her passport in time, that actually the chance of us getting it any time soon was about 0.01%, she obviously got upset. Somehow, sometime later, the subject of fairies came up and she asked me if they were real. I told her that I believed they were, but that she had to make up her own mind about it. She said she didn't believe they existed. When the subject of the passport came back up, she asked if there was anything we could do. So I told her, she could make a wish, and ask for the passport to be made, and if she wished hard enough, it might just come true. When she asked me: 'But who do I ask?' I told her: 'Well, why don't you ask the fairies?'

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Less than a week later, I received a letter. I was 'summoned' to come to the passport office, to 'have a chat' about the verbal abuse and threats I had made. I was fuming again, but at the same time, I thought it was a bad joke and I had landed in the Twilight Zone. Nevertheless, we went to that meeting, and I was welcomed into the office by the office manager and his superior. The office manager was a very unfriendly man, and he started right away, explaining how they didn't condone attacks on their staff and how I was out of line, and something about an apology...blah, blah, blah.

However, his superior seemed to be a bit nicer and more understanding. I told them the full story, also added that she should have known better than to upset a pregnant mother, especially when it comes to her children since hormones can do crazy things, and a woman should know these things... I explained that she was completely out of line looking up those records, and that now I had to start over filing for divorce, which already had cost me a lot of money, and how, now, because of her, I needed to get his signature or a court order to even think of applying for her passport. I also told them that this trip was planned for some time, that I had to go since it was going to be a work/business holiday, and would be our last trip before the baby. Both men said there was really nothing they could do. Although the nice man apologized for the woman's behavior and confirmed that it was completely out of line, and not allowed for her to search anyone's records on her own account, especially since mine was in the US. But, I had to go through the normal procedures, file for divorce, and get a judge to sign off for the passport if I didn't get the father's signature. All of which could take months and we didn't have months.
Just when I was about to give up, and just accept that there was nothing we could do, the nice manager took a look at my daughter's birth cert and said: 'Hold on! Why is the father's name not on the birth cert?' So I explained, that I never registered the marriage in Holland, had no clue that I had to at the time so that when my daughter was born, it was only my name that was registered. He went on very quickly after that, he said: 'Well, then. Since his name is not on the cert, and we 'officially' don't have anything registered about your marriage just yet, I am going to do something I am not actually allowed to do, but since there is no one here to tell me otherwise, I'm going to do it anyway. Follow me.'
He brought me to another woman's desk, walking straight past the nasty employee's desk, even though he could have avoided that by walking the other (shorter) way around, told her whatever it was that needed to be done, before turning back to me to say: 'This lady will help you now, she is very nice. I sincerely apologize for all the hassle, and I wish you a very lovely time in Belize. If there are any issues in the future, please call me.' We shook hands and he took off. The nasty woman heard every word and didn't know where to look. Of course, I gave her my sweetest but most smug smile. CHECKMATE!
One week later my daughter had her passport, and we were on our way.

Magic? Courtesy of the Fairies. My daughter never doubted their existence again. Of course, one can never be sure, but since our chances of NOT getting that passport was around 99.9% I think I'm allowed to say that it was magic. The universe, or whatever, heard us, heard her and made things happen.