Now this is Magic (-;

My life has been unfolding in a very graceful, peaceful, magical way for some years now. It is simple, joyful, fulfilling and I feel blessed and grateful each day, each breath.

However lately, there has been such an upgrade of magic that I haven’t even been able to begin to recount it! Anyway, here is part of the bundle.

I wrote my first children’s story called So it’s Simples! / Afinal é Simples! (it’s bilingual - Portuguese and English) almost 6 years ago and asked several different people if they could illustrate it... 

Then I let it go, because no one who said yes could come up with Ivo's image - Ivo is the main character, a 5 year old child with an avid imagination, a very sweet heart and whose innocent outlook makes everything extremely simple. He goes through a very big challenge and is then lead to listen to his heart, which takes him to his Centre where he discovers his Essence, his Safe Space and many other treasures he didn’t realise were there… he of course discovers all this through his breath.

Well one day, last year, on the 23rd of April, World Book Day, I went to a book presentation I had been invited to, in the Christ Convent - the place where the Order of the Templar Knights was born - a very beautiful and relevant monument in the town I live in here in Portugal, in Tomar. It was a poetry book called Fluid Margin and a young man named João had illustrated it. It had been written by his music teacher, Ricardo Grácio. 

I sat right in front of João, of course not knowing at the time who he was or why he was there. As the poet presented and spoke, he eventually showed the illustration and presented João, his young music student whom he admired very deeply. As soon as I saw the drawings I knew this was the illustrator for So it's Simple! and at the end I went up to him and asked if he would like to read the story in order to feel whether he would like to illustrate it. 

He was 17 at the time, ending high school. He read it that very same day and immediately said yes. We established a deadline for the 15th of July which he fulfilled and a month ago we signed the contract with the Publisher. João is now at the Fine Arts Faculty taking a degree in Drawing and we now have this partnership for the book, which I felt just had to be so because the book would not be what it is without the illustrations, so it has now gone beyond being mine, or his, it has gained a life of its own.

Well this young man is a Master. I don’t know who he was before but of one thing I am sure: he is a Master. 

The book is to be launched on the 1st of February 2020 at Tomar’s Public Library and when we asked for the space the Municipality immediately offered to partner with us, so we didn’t have to pay for it and they still spread out invitations to all school children up to the age of 12 in the Municipality’s jurisdiction.

The book was to be ready on the 20th of January but it arrived at the Publisher’s a week earlier!

This allowed us to start making contacts with other Municipalities proposing that they buy it for the children in their area and so it is that on our very first meeting we sold over 200 books! And the book hasn’t even been launched yet!

Amazingly João, who seems to be shy, has turned out to be an excellent presenter which is just what we need, since we are presenting the book together with a Creative Writing, Drawing and Conscious Breath Workshop. 

So we managed to have not one but 2 pre-launch sessions this last weekend, one on Friday at an amazing school, with around fifty 12 year olds - 7th graders here in Portugal, in Porto, up in the north. This was our first experience presenting the book and the workshop to go with it and it was amazing! The funny thing is there aren’t that many schools with an experiential learning programme in place and we landed in just one of these schools! Both the children and the teachers loved it and of course we sold some books as well. 

We stayed in Porto at a Hostel called Yellow Hostel and the place was just perfect in all senses. When we arrived there were no parking spaces on the street so I drove round the block and found a place, the only one available. It turns out it was free and this was an all-paid area so finding this space was quite magical.

Then on Saturday the most amazing thing happened. We went to an English Teachers' Conference and I had only 20 minutes to present 3 different things (My new online Courses: Focus https://www.institutolindaschool.com/focus-snippet and Super Stress Relief Kit https://www.institutolindaschool.com/StressReliefKit, 

So we basically had just 10 minutes to introduce the book. As we arrived and I was hugging the organizer, the secretary hands her the phone. She goes into the Conference room. After a short while I see she is not on the phone anymore so I come up to her with a gift. 

She is having a panic attack because the lady presenting before my presentation is suddenly feeling under the weather and can't come. When she said she was panicking, I just said "take a deep breath and relax, all is well", so she looks at me and asks if I would fill the space in for her! Turns out we had the whole workshop prepared for the kids from the previous day so we had it all ready to deliver to the teachers.  We ended up having 1h15 min to present it all properly and get the teachers engaged in the workshop. It was an outstanding experience… with yet more books sold!

When we got back from lunch the lady who had been feeling ill was already there! She had apparently started throwing up in the morning and then lay down, fell asleep and woke up better.

Now go figure that one👀 😁

Just a few more magic instants related to this book:

We decided I would write the emails and João would take care of the promo video. We decided it would have some animation. João, however, has never done animation. That is no deterrent for him anyway and at no instance does he say he can’t do it. Well the following day he has to go to Uni to take care of some things. He meets this guy who is in the second year of his course and they start talking. He tells him all about the book and starts discussing the video issue. What is this guy now into? Precisely learning and practicing animation! So João hands him over the task and that’s it. Here’s the video, which I absolutely love 👏👏👏

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G-LnVjWRLM and in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RiLQVjCrak

Last week on Wednesday we had an interview at the local radio / newspaper. I had got a lift to town in the morning and it had not been raining so I had no umbrella. But when I set off for the interview it was raining. I didn’t mind. Just put my hood over my head and walked on. Around 100 metres down the road I find my daughter’s ex high school class director coming out of her garage. We chatted for a while and I showed her the book. She suddenly asks me if I don’t want a lift since it’s raining. I initially refuse, but she insists and I say “ok, thank you very much”. I get in the car and she takes me right to the door and doesn’t let me leave without lending me her extra umbrella.

This very same day João was supposed to have brought 60 books with him from the Publisher in Lisbon. He would have had to do so by train. But it was not necessary since all of a sudden my mother tells me the day before that she is going to Lisbon to visit a friend who has cancer. The publisher’s wife happens to be going to a place right in front of that hospital that very same afternoon so the delivery is smooth and simple. The lady whom my mum went to visit that day finally passed away this Sunday, after some very painful weeks of avoiding letting go.

On Tuesday I decided to go to the Library just to confirm the time we will be arriving on Saturday for the presentation. It occurs to me to call first and check whether the director is there but I decide not to and trust she will be.

When I arrive, I ask the receptionist who says she isn’t there. Nevertheless, she goes and checks and actually she has just arrived!

On Wednesday we go for another interview for another radio station in a town nearby. Turns out it's going on on Saturday the 1st Feb in the morning, the launch is in the afternoon at 4 pm and it is going to be put ahead of another 4 which were already waiting in line... Our interviewer just said it made sense to pass this one on first :D And while we're there I ask whether we could use the studio to record the audiobook and bam! Starting the recordings today...

It's all so simple and effortless. A blessing to live and to watch💙💚💛💜💖

I could go on and on because the rate of magic happening has quadrupled, but I’ll share some more in another post.

Have you been experiencing your magic in HD also?