What? How on earth? That isn’t real! You’ve got to be kidding me!
Nope. It’s really true. I DO have the Mirror of Erised, only it’s not a Mirror…it’s a place.
I have in my backyard what you might think is a very ugly red cabin. Some pieces of the old wood are chipping off and leaving behind driftwood colored dents in the old red walls.
There are no pristine white borders, no nicely painted doors and only one old steel door with a window on the other side. It’s fairly nondescript. If you didn’t know the wealth it had inside it, you may not even want to venture inside.
The deck leading in is built from pallets, and even a few of those boards are broken, seeming to have given up even the idea that it should be a deck.
A few places scattered around the outside you’d find a random soda or beer can, maybe a cigarette butt or two and an old iron cauldron; the type people lay in their yards and plant flowers in.
If anyone looked at it and didn’t know, they would just keep right on walking. There are no fancy decorations, it’s just a plain old “shed”. Almost a derelict building. Seemingly abandoned by time and the inhabitants of the property. But it hasn’t been.
Those who regularly come walking through the old door, it never opens all the way, know what lie inside. It becomes a magical realm. It doesn’t show you what you most desire like the mirror though; it’s better, it becomes what you most need. The only catch is, it won’t work for a non-believer. It IS magic that way after all.
Once inside, you’d see the hand-carved slab wood made into a small staircase to an equally small loft.There is an old Jim Beam hat and green coat hanging by the door, waiting for it’s owner to scoop it up and walk off on another adventure; not knowing that he will never return…at least in a physical sense. An old handmade wood stove and some old Christmas lights.
The magic though, and what catches your eye, is the paper stapled on the wall. Handwritten notes from all the visitors, the friends, the celebrities all in their own rights. The eulogies, penned by a sad hand, the jokes that don’t always make sense. Markers hanging on strings, just waiting to write a lifetime of thoughts.
Inside the walls are the depths of emotions, given freely and captured within. The I love you’s and the I wish you were here again writings beg to be read. The silly jokes and drawings pull you to them. But what really brings it to life is the people inside the cabin, and the music.
See, the cabin is equipped with gigantic speakers and from that pours music from any genre ever created by man. Slow music, the kind that makes you want to fall in love again. Hard hitting rock music so you can forget your problems if only for a while.
Music that touches the souls of those within. And the beautiful folks within, that play the music that their souls sing. That is the magic.
Do you want a soft night, to talk quietly and sing along and heal your heart? Do you want a rockin’ night to sing karaoke and dance? Or a laugh filled night with just a couple songs playing softly in the background? It becomes whatever you need it to be.
You are safe within these walls. The walls penned with memories and laughter, grief and life, smiles and tears, it’s all there. The Cabin becomes what you most want it to be.
There is no judgement. There is no topic that can’t be spoken. There is no heart that can’t be healed. There is no pain that can be brought that can’t be fixed. The Cabin is whatever you need it to be. It’s filled with magic, the magic of all of those who enter.
The people that grace these walls are some of the greatest people I have ever known. They are the magic.The magic that brings the inside of this old building to life. The magic that no matter what you need, the cabin will provide for you that night. When your mood has changed a few weeks later, the cabin will change too.
From a bangin’ nightclub, to a quiet country saloon to a raucous Irish pub and anything in between…it becomes whatever you need. It has healed broken hearts, and congratulated the newly wed. It has counted tears and smiled when those within were ready to smile again. It has wept and mourned the passing of friends and time and it has rejoiced in the laughter of a child.
The Cabin might fade away, like the marker-ed epitaphs do over time, but it will always be the one place where time doesn’t exist. Where whatever you need, it will be. Some of the greatest people ever born have walked through that old door and it became whatever they needed most. It might fade away as time goes on, but it will always be magic. The best kind of magic. The magic of life, the magic of love, the magic of peace and the magic of healing. It is whatever you need most. Magic.
larinnachandler 