The Magic in The Mirror

By Shea Clarke
June 17, 2001

I just spent the most fascinating half hour.

I sat hidden out of view and watched my five year old daughter play in my bathroom mirror.

It started out that she was going to bush her teeth after having a snack.

After she had finished brushing she picked up her cup to rinse.

Suddenly she became transformed.

I sat and watched with wonder at how something as minor as a cup and some water could create so much when put into a five year olds hands.

I sat on my bed just out of her view in the mirror, trying hard not to laugh out loud and interrupt.

I watched as she did a "coffee" commercial. I smiled as she then began to advertise that she was "Mrs. Stanley Allen" and her dentures no longer slipped.

I sat mesmerized while she sang "Tea For Two" a song I didn't realize she even knew the words to, and then stifled my giggles as she began to splash water in her face while singing "Rain drops keep falling on my head".

She then began to recite lines from two of her favorite movies "Madeline" and the Wizard of Oz". It amazes me the way she can remember them word for word.

While she was looking in that mirror she really was Dorothy desiring to return home.

She then filled her mouth with water and imitated a sprinkler, and as suddenly as the "Marygrace Show" began it was then over.

She turned off the water and dried her face and jumped down from the stool to see me laying there watching.

She grinned shyly and said, "I know, I'm just too cute, huh?" and skipped off to her room.

I shook my head in awe of her and went into the bathroom. I stood in front of the mirror trying to see what could have triggered that half hour of imagination play. But, sadly, all I could see was a mirror and my own reflection. Nothing inspired me to sing or pretend to become someone other than myself.

I became overwhelmed with such sadness. Sadness that all I could see was my own tired reflection in water spotted glass… most of all sadness knowing that someday my baby girl would no longer look into a mirror and see the same magic that she did this afternoon.

Oh how I wish there was some way to capture the magic of childhood in that mirror and keep it there for her forever.