Life is a pretty humdrum existence most of the time. With some ups and downs, along with long stretches when nothing extraordinary or interesting seems to be happening. But in most everybody’s life there are also special moments, some of which are almost magical.

Can you recollect any magical moments in your own life?

It doesn’t have to be anything seemingly special. But rather something that feels special.

Like this one instant when a teenager is waiting at a bus stop on her way home from school. It is snowing, and she is warmly dressed in a long, thick, burgundy coat with buttons all the way down, stretching down to her knees. It is a coat that not just anybody would be wearing. For her parents got it from charity that hands over new, but very durable clothes to needy families. No one in school knew about it though. And she wouldn’t tell of course.

But this afternoon as she is waiting for her bus, she couldn’t care less where the coat was from. In fact it feels regal for it reminds her of the film Doctor Zhivago, and of all those fancy clothes people were wearing in those times. And on her hands she has matching leather mittens that she had bought herself with the money she had earned delivering advertisements in the neighborhood. They feel just perfect. She feels perfect.

It is already dark, like it always is this time of year this high up in the north. The street lamp by the bus stop is casting shadows on the snow, and snow flakes keep falling on the palms of her outstretched hands. They stay there in perfect shape for a while, until they melt, and become one with her mittens. She lifts her head towards the starry sky, and feels suddenly one with everything around her.

This is happiness. Perfection. A magical moment. A memory never to fade away.

These magical moments know no age, but they do seem to happen more often to us when we are young. When we get older, we tend to pass them by, hurry through life. For this, nature is such a good reminder. It slows us down if we let it. That squirrel on the branch, looking at you. That big tree that never says no to you - come lean on me! That familiar path into the woods that always welcomes us. We get a treat every single time by just stepping into nature.

Magical moments is not just something for the movies. This we know. But do we at times perhaps keep ourselves from experiencing them? There is so much magic around us. If nothing else, music is magic! Accessible, available, always there to accompany us. Made by humans, for fellow humans. And made by nature, for all of us.