Magic

  (Okay, so I couldn't wait till tomorrow to post this)


This is a true story. It all happened somewhere in yesterday...

    When I was younger, don't think I appreciated my family nearly as much as I do now.  My three brothers and I were always at eachothers throats (my brothers moreso than me) and we usually prefered to hang out with friends than with our parents. Now, my family is amazingly close. Well, with the exception of my parents who divorced when I was ten. Anyways, back to the story. I find myself remembering my Dad's "special water". This was a magical type of water that my dad could put on any skinned knee or bruised elbow and it would be immediately better. Of course, it was really just regular tap water that my dad would always put into the same container so that we thought it was the same magic water everytime. Somehow, we never noticed that the water level remained the same everytime.

    Anyways, when I was about six or seven, there was a huge snowstorm in Chilliwack (my hometown for those of you who didn't know that) and we were snowed in. At the time, we lived in the area of the city called Greendale. It was mostly farms out that way and we heated the main area of our house with a wood stove. Now, Greendale is one of those places that's far enough away from a hospital that it's practically impossible for an ambulance to get out there in a snowstorm like the one that was happening at that time. Also, the roads were not plowed.

    So, my family was sitting down to have dinner (in the dining room by the wood stove- a rare occasion because we never ate as a family) and I suddenly had to use the washroom. Because I was on the opposite side of the room from the washroom, I had two choices of routes. Route number one was to go around the majority of my family, past the window and therefore avoiding the wood stove. Route number two was to go past just one brother, but required me walking on the loose bricks that surrounded the wood stove. What do you think I chose? Of course, the loose bricks around the wood stove. My brother at the time was a bit of an ass (sorry if any of you are reading this, but it's true. We were all asshole children) so he didn't even pull in his chair for me. Instead, I fell as a brick came loose under my foot. I landed hands first on the top of the wood stove, burning my hands from hands to wrist. My Mom and Dad were lightning fast in their response. I don't remember what my brothers did. Both parents grabbed me off the ground and ran me outside to put my hands into the snow. Once my hands were fully cooled off in the snow, I asked for the only thing that I could think of to stop the pain: my Dad's "special water". I don't remember if I knew at the time that it wasn't really magic. I know that today the mere idea of that water makes me feel better, so I could have known. I don't remember. What I do remember my dad running off to his "secret stash of special water" and telling me and my brothers not to watch where he kept it. It's funny because, after he put that water on my hands, it actually felt better than when we had put them in the snow. Anyways, my hands were in pain for a couple days, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been thanks to my parent's quick thinking. I never even had to got to the hospital for it and I have no scars from the incident.

    It's weird the things we believe when we're kids, but those weird beliefs set the stage for the rest of our lives. The fact that my father cares enough about me and my brothers to have made up that "special water" to make us feel better makes me smile whenever I think about it. Also, the fact that one of my brothers once ran off towards the bathroom, when I was hurt and my dad wasn't home, saying that he knew where Dad kept the magic water just to help me feel better makes me realize that my entire family was close when we were younger. We just didn't show it as much as we do now. A good family will go to the ends of the earth and back for eachother, even if it's not a life or death situation.

   So, here's my assignment for all of you today: think of something that someone you consider family has done for you that makes you smile. Remember it and try to do the same for someone in your future.