Magical Moments. Laguna Beach CA.
No, no spells were cast or wands waved. Once upon a Time didn’t come to life. Harry Potter didn’t leap off the page. And Disney World didn’t become reality, but magic does happen if you let it. Every now and then the elements surrounding you and the state of your mind open a window for magic to enter your life. That moment in time when something touches your heart and spirit in a special way, be it a book, a song, a picture, a place, a person, a pet, or anything else imaginable. Do you know what I mean?
To introduce myself to the Whine Sisters and to readers, I’d thought I’d share a few magical moments in my life. Many times for me, I can point to a particular place that I visited, where the magic of the moment became an unforgettable experience. The first time I went walking in the early morning mists of the Shenandoah Valley I could feel the spirits of those who’d lived and walked the rustic trail hundreds of years before. The fresh dew glistened upon deep green leaves and the call of a crow echoed in the air.
Visiting Williamsburg and Jamestown, Virginia was the same way for me, too. The history, the atmosphere, and the experience all coalesced together to make it a place I will never forget. The footprints of brave men and women who forged a new world seemed to mark the cobblestones as I walked the streets, breathed the cool air, and read the headstones marking their graves.
As a reader, the moment I fell in love with romance through the words of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Wolf and the Dove– Aislinn of Darkenwald pain and confusion as she both hated and loved Wulfgar, the conquering Norman who may have won a battle but lost his heart to a Saxon maid.
As a writer, I’ve had a number of magical moments where for me the story came alive and the characters stole my heart. I’ll never forget writing The Mistress of Trevelyan, my first book to sell. I fell in love with gothics all over again as I delved Ann into the mists and murder mystery darkening the lives of those in within the brooding house on Trevelyan Hill.
In music, the raw passion of Music of the Night will forever reach into my soul. It is romance, seduction, love, hope, and redemption all within the words of a song.
But surpassing everything else ever are the first moments that I held each of my children as newborn babes. I will never forget the miracle of life and the precious gifts entrusted into my hands and heart.
Some magical moments are as simple as being the right place at the right time. My most recent experience occurred in Laguna Beach, California. Eating dinner, overlooking the ocean at sunset was just pure magic. There may be other places on earth where one can capture the sunset in a wine glass, but it was a first for me and magical.
If there is a magic potion for magical moments, it would be to keep an open heart, a positive mind, and allow yourself to relax and enjoy life.
So, today let’s give a toast to Magic!
Thank you for sharing in my moments. Will you share yours with me?
Jennifer St. Giles.
Remember every day to dream, believe, create, inspire, love, and heal.
And PS My latest book, Hard Irish written as Jennifer Saints has a few hot magical moments! LOL
Available Now!
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome post!!!!! I have so many magical moments, too, but we share one! A dinner and sunset in Laguna Beach. I even have a great photo. Must be a magical place. Hmmm. Maybe that’s b/c it’s only a short drive to Disneyland?
Ti, Great to meet you in cyber space and LOL What a heroine you are! Go girl go. I’m all for stretching your boundaries and discovering what you never knew you knew. But I have to join the rest in the spider thing. Not my cup of tea. LOL
Thank you Sherri. And LOL it is a good thing I don’t hold my breath for the magic, but yeah there is nothing like it when the magic happens during a book.
I’m sorry Ti. If Arachne was at my house she/he/it would be flat…
Hi Jennifer! Welcome to the Whiners.
Thank you Laura! Great to be here.
Just popping in to say that Jennifer texted me–she’s at work and will comment on all the comments this evening when she gets home. In addition to being a fab writer, she’s also an RN.
LOL either I pay you well or my mother does. Thank you for the compliment.
I remember walking on the beach in Carmel, California with my soulmate, my Gene. We were watching the waves gently breaking and playing tag with the freezing cold water trying to see who could get the closest without getting wet. I lost. Then later having hot bread and Earl Grey tea in a quaint Carmel bistro overlooking the bay. Gene watched the sunset but I watched him in the glow of the fading light. This beautiful man I would one day loose to cancer. But those magical moments of love, soggy sneakers and beauty stay in your heart for a lifetime.
What a moving tribute to your love. Thank you for sharing.
You made me tear up! Beautiful!
You never cease to touch my heart, Susie. thank you for sharing your beautiful memory!
Great cover! And I know just what you mean about historical places. There is magic there. Some even more than others. And you expect to round the corner and see someone walking the fields or treading the stairs or standing in the bailey.
Thank you Dee. I wonder if that isn’t why we became writers. Because the magic of places and people and relationships and love, and romance speaks to us REALLY LOUD.
I was at Colonial Williamsburg for four days last month. It is one of my favorite places. I love all things and places historic. We were at the Ford Museum in MI many years ago. As we neared the car that President Kennedy was riding in when he was murdered, I felt very cold air. I don’t know if anyone else felt it or not.
Exactly Sandi, Whether it is the spirits from the past or just our sensitivity to certain things we feel the unspoken. I felt that at a Civil War battlefield.
Welcome, Jennifer! Congratulations on your first post. You’re official!
I love the magic that happens when you’re writing and something seems to take over and suddenly you just can’t stop. Waiting for that magic now. Still waiting. Any minute now.
Yeah…me too… waiting… waiting…
Hopping into the waiting pool…
Just keep swimming,
swimming,
swimming;
Just keep swimming…
The Wolf and the Dove is one of her best, and I have a hard time choosing between it and a Rose in Winter, The Flame and the Flower and Shanna. The rest of her books were mediocre.
Hello Jennifer! My name is Ti, like tea, opposite of coffee. I am a tattooed, pierced, purple haired punk chic from Florida who has changed her stars and moved far far away to Ye Merry Olde England. I am outspoken, I have a temper and I love interesting facts.
I am a mom who took her at the time 12 year old daughter to see Rob Zombie and just this past Saturday bought the now 14 year old same daughter her first spider, which is currently sitting on my desk watching me type this. She (or he!) is very curious and likes watching me. In fact, sometimes I feel many eyes watching me and can turn at any time to find any number of snakes, rodents lizards and dogs watching me. We do have a zoo. Which has also increased into the hundreds when I HAD to open my mouth when buying the spider and saying how stick bugs were good chameleon food and was given, for free, a container of about 100 stick insects.
Magical moments- That moment when I KNEW I was pregnant. I had taken the bf to a chinese restaurant to break up with him, and there was a fortune teller machine. I thought why not and got one. It had a picture of a dolphin on the top and (see how weird I am? I have it right here) it says:
‘Somewhere across the sea a fascinating Virgo is waiting for you. It may be sometime before you meet, but your relationship will brighten your lives.’ At that moment I KNEW I was pregnant. Want to know something even creepier than that? My daughter was born the 19th of September which makes her a Virgo. And I had just read one of the Earth Children books which had poems in it saying the Great Mother gave birth to man and animals, as the red seas gushed from her. (gross I know but giving birth is not all that clean now is it??) Anyway…I knew I was pregnant. So I told the then bf to grow up or get out. He has never met her. And that is his loss.
I live in England. Land of myths and mystery. I cannot tell you the countless times I have been places and ‘felt’ some presence that you could not see. Or smelled something long forgotten like at Kenilworth Castle, in one of the towers, there was a strange sweet spicy smell. I will never forget it.
Well, I could write a novel but as a recent escapee from the hospital, it is time for me to lie down with a happy pill.
Welcome to The Whine Sisters and hope to see you around!
This is Ti. This is Ti on happy pills. I’m trying to imagine.
-giggle snort giggle-
Meet Arachne. She is following my finger back and forth in her tank. And to think, I am arachnophobic!
I wonder if she is following my finger wondering
A if she can sit on it or
B if it is edible.
You are a brave, brave woman. The spider and I would not be able to co-exist in the same house. Hamsters I like. Spiders–no. Especially ones that are big enough to be classified as “pets.”