originally published in The Sunday Stew 7/5/15 edition

I cried because I did not know what to write. I only knew her a year, I wasn’t worthy of this writing, I thought. Then………….looking around her page opened my heart!

She loved islands, nature, so like me. She believed in magic and wove it into her day to day life.

I saw she went to Oxford. I did too, but for a summer, I joked beforehand that it would make me smarter somehow just sitting in those beautiful old classrooms and eating in grand style at long tables just like Harry Potter did.

Someone posted a wonderful image of a besom on the earth among some of Brian Froud’s Faerie Oracle cards. I love that deck. So I selected a card for her to place on my altar- “O! That Gnome” it read ‘It’s time to leap into the air, letting the earth turn beneath you, and discover where you come down again.’ What a playful heart. This was very true to her spirit.

Being aware, understanding the ebbs and flows…… that is spontaneous magic. Susan was always weaving the patterns of life in her writing, on her posts, with wonderful words of wisdom. Her spells and rituals brightened the pages of the Sunday Stew back before I ever wrote here. I loved them and did a few.

Magic is the fundamental act of remembering.

We need to share those things that heal us, that encourage us, inspire us, and that enrich our lives. So that even in darkness we can find light. Susan did this everyday in her own way.

The great work is the work of a lifetime.

The effect we have on others is the most valuable currency there is! It lasts forever and does not expire. It is timeless.