When You Change The Way You Look At Things . . . .

There is something about the way that the morning light strikes Casa Claire that brings out the magic in the air.

Yesterday, as I continued to bask in the warm glow of the release of WTLLM, I was reminded by visual cues, of what made me sit down to write in the first place.

Sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of eyes.

One moment occurred in the early afternoon, when my youngest granddaughter, Stella, who had been out exploring the grounds with her oldest sister, Scarlett – middle child Savanna having succumbed to the neighbor childrens’ human stomach virus, and spending the day ensconced in and vomiting, like Regan in The Exorcist, all over my favorite recliner – came racing into the house to inform her mother that she had just spotted a Bigfoot Crossing sign on one of the fences. Having just recently arrived after having spent a 10 day sojourn through the primordial woods in the Northwest with her parents and siblings, she was well versed in everything Sasquatch. as all McCaffreys should be.

Indeed, if you look carefully at the background, stage right, you will spot one of those creatures watching Stella from the tree line, truly terrified that it had finally come upon this mystical Centaurian hybrid, voguing, knowing full well that none of the other Sasquatches would believe it.

Well, listening to the excitement in tiny Stella’s voice as she questioned the room as to the likely presence of Big Foot on our property, and the likelihood of spotting one, was intoxicating. I, of course, confirmed the possibility, explaining, with pure McCaffrey logic, why else would there be a Big Foot Crossing sign.

Later, when Lisa asked me to check on Scarlett, who loves to disappear outside for extended solo investigations, with Blue always within earshot, I spotted her from the back deck. She was standing at a fence line, facing away from me, staring at something down on the back property.

When my eyes followed her attention, there was Claire, by Geppetto’s studio, engaged in a repeated three step – 1-2-3, 1-2-3 – forward then backward – a pattern that I had only seen her perform at my back door and only when accompanied by music. I watched carefully to see if this was just Claire trying to scratch herself on some nearby post or shrub, but she was standing in a clearing.

Scarlett was so transfixed that she didn’t hear me come up behind her. Then she turned excitedly, her eyes like saucers, and whispered with pure awe in her voice, “Claire was dancing. I watched her.”

And I whispered back “And you and I were the only ones that saw her.”

You would have sworn she had just come upon an inhabited fairy circle (you haven’t lived until you have seen one of those).

I wish I had my iPhone with me to capture that whole thing on video.

These special moments remind me just how magical is this place that I call Casa Claire. And how if you look at things with the wonder of a child’s eyes, anything is possible.

Well, today I must finish a motion I am working on – which is shaping up to be absolutely brilliant. I cannot wait for opposing counsel to shit himself when he reads it. One must find what pleasures one can.

For the rest of my fine, five readers, I hope Thursday does her job as Friday’s handmaiden and allows you to wrap whatever real work you must engage in this week, so that tomorrow you are free to read/reread whatever is left of the first four books of The Claire Saga so that the weekend is open to embrace Where The Ley Lines Meet.

But before any of that happens, I must go out and cuddle some kitties, then perform my rounds.

And whatever else we may get up to, magic or muggle, let us make today a great one.