Grand Transformations

If, like me, you find yourself noticing more glitter than usual under your fingernails, or on the washcloth as you wash your face, then perhaps you too were part of this year’s Grand Transformation at Castle in the Air, our official welcome to the holiday season.

As always, the reimagining and decorating of the shop was the work of many hands, each of us giving the best of ourselves to the task. Some people are good at the big picture, deciding which marvels are better suited to greet you as you arrive and which ones are better discovered quietly after you’ve settled in.

Others in the Castle crew excel at bringing together the details for each of the scenes we want to share with you. The ornaments on the tree, the books on the shelf, the dolls and marionettes arranged just so, each of them waiting to come to life in your own story.

Just like the shop itself, the Grand Transformation brings together the old and the new. Holiday traditions are wonderful in that they comfort us with revisits of the familiar and at the same time fill us with anticipation over what could be in that brightly colored box, or around the corner in the coming new year.

The turning of the year is a time of hustle and bustle, but amidst the mad dash of the holidays, this is also a time when our thoughts turn inward. Some days finding a moment to think seems like a tall order, but the more times I move through this season the more I know that we can rise to the challenge. 

Perhaps this push and pull, sometimes inner, sometimes outer, isn’t as much of a contradiction as it seems. When I can quiet my mind, it’s in this movement that I find much food for thought concerning the true nature of magic. Looking around at the artistry woven together by many hands, I’m aware just how much magic we have here, and how lucky all of us are to have found one another.