I was at the beach at Nehalem Bay in Oregon a few months ago. A 5-year-old girl was doing the worm in the sand, her mother standing nearby.

“Is that the worm?” I asked her.

“Yes!” She wormed some more.

She jumped up and ran up to me and my dog Atlas. I held his leash tight. He’s twice her size and weight, and I was worried he might hurt her. He’s always jumping. I often fear he’ll hurt an elderly person or child with his overwhelming love. 

I looked to the mother. 

“It’s OK. She has the touch.”

She put her tiny hands on both sides of Atlas’ face. He calmed down profoundly.

She did have the touch.

We talked some more. Something about her profoundly moved me. 

She was pure soul.

She was magic.

You are magic. We are all magic.

Often, though, that magic is lost beneath piles of conditioning by society and our parents. Our traumas, our parents’ trauma, our cultural mandates, they change us. It’s our spiritual journey, it’s the whole reason we’re born I believe, to spend our lives coming back to our authentic selves. It’s not an easy journey. I’ve been on this path for 27 years and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. When we touch the raw place of our lost authentic selves it draws up all sorts of grief, rage, denial, fear. That’s why they call it a Hero’s Journey because it takes serious courage.

If you want to find your purpose, the only way is through this excavation. Your purpose is the essence of who you are. In an imperfect world, we have to go on a journey to find this essence if we are to truly find our purpose. 

One great way to engage our innate magic is to revisit our younger selves. Here are 5 tips for doing that.

1. Write down a list of things you loved to do when you were little. Do  one of them!
2. Look at a picture of your younger self. Ask her what she’s feeling, what she needs, what she wants, what she thinks. Write it down. Listen to her.
3. Finger paint. We’re taught to be so practical as adults. Be impractical. Goof around.
4. Read children’s books. They’re magic and will remind you of your magic.
5. Play. Play. Play — in whatever way that comes to you. 

Now, bring any one of the above into your current spiritual/creative practice. Invoke and involve this younger self when you meditate, or journal, or write, or do art. It will reinvigorate your practice.

It’s all about what you love. It’s all about love.

Contact me if you’d like a healing metaphysical session — I’m doing the sessions remotely and in person at my yurt in Estacada, OR. info@carolineallen.com