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Maia Toll's avatar

So incredibly thrilled to be in this conversation with you, Laura. I didn’t let myself read your response until today (I didn’t want to spoil the surprise!🤣). It was--of course--so worth the wait!

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Ahh, I love that you waited!

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Sara Em's avatar

This makes me think of a childhood camp song/lullaby:

Magic is the sun that makes a rainbow out of rain.

And Magic keeps the dream alive to try and try again.

Magic is the love that stays when good friends have to leave.

I do believe in Magic, I believe.

Looking forward to the rest of the conversation!

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Ohhh, I love that! 🔥🎶 Thank you for reading.

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Kaitlyn Rightmyer's avatar

This is beautiful! Magic is certainly one of those things that is so deeply felt and eludes being able to be captured with words! To me, magic and innocence are hand in hand.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Oh I love this definition Kaitlyn! Thank you so much for joining in the conversation.

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Jenna Newell Hiott's avatar

I love your definition of magic, Kaitlyn! Thank you!

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Kaitlyn Rightmyer's avatar

Oh thank you! I'm happy it spoke to you :)

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Natalie Eslick's avatar

I love this collaboration Laura and Maia - so gentle and soft as fog itself. To think of our fascia as the seat of magic made my heart skip a beat. When I am imagining into my art, when I shapeshift to become the being I am honouring in pigment so I can *feel* what she feels, how she *is*, I always find myself hunching forward, chin to chest, then rolling my shoulders and opening my chest, head back - a beautiful limbering of my fascia to create space for, or indeed perhaps to release, well, magic.

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Maia Toll's avatar

Love this! The opening, the shifting of the fibers of self, to reveal the magic.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

‘Soft as fog itself’, I love that! 🤍

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Jenna Newell Hiott's avatar

This is so wonderful! I, too, think of fascia as the "place" where we interface with magic, with the unseen, with the everything. I'm so excited to following this continuing journey with you both.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Thank you so much for reading! 💫

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Robyn Ryle's avatar

I love this so much and it comes to me at just the right moment, as I'm thinking about magic and starting to write my own spells and considering, isn't a novel or a story or a poem just a kind of spell? I KNOW that my cranio-sacral therapist is magical. And the idea that maybe fascia are where our magic lives. Wow. Thanks so much and looking forward to all of this conversation.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Oh that's such a fascinating question Robyn, I love that.

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Robyn Ryle's avatar

Just read a book (fiction) called INK, BLOOD, SISTER, SCRIBE which sort of plays with that idea. Fun read.

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Maia Toll's avatar

I just finished that book as well! I loved the simple play on words a spell book really was a spell book...like the book was the spell.

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Robyn Ryle's avatar

Oh, good. Can't wait to read it.

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Priya Iyer's avatar

Those moments are so special, when we meet magic. Thank you for sharing this lovely postcard!

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Thank you so much for reading Priya!

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Jessica Leigh Allen's avatar

Lovely conversation. Your exchange appeared in my Notes today and I was at first, puzzled. I'd asked this very question on my Substack a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed reading the thoughtful replies to my query, 'What is Magic?' and it marked a turning point in my relationship with my readers, my writing and my relationship w/ my own definitions of magic! ✨

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Ahh, that’s amazing! I’m off to read your post…

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Diane K24's avatar

I love the piece and the concept of your collaboration across the pond. That’s not counting two wonderful misty, foggy photos. I’m looking forward to more!

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Oh thank you Diane! I’m happy that you are enjoying it. 🙏💫

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The Chelsea Writer's avatar

Hi Laura,

Your post struck a chord when you mentioned your first blog post was about letters across the Atlantic. My favourite chapter in my debut novel, Tunnel of Mirrors, is entitled Letters Home and it is largely made up of letters from Irish emigrants living in America to the relatives they left behind in Donegal. In this chapter, the hero - who is literate - helps the local priest by reading the letters to their recipients who cannot read. My novel isn't about magic, per se, but it has an element of magic. I like to say it is lightly touched by magic. Anyway, good luck with this - I will be following the conversations with interest.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Oh that sounds fascinating! There is something so special about letters as a written form. ✉️

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Lauren Barber's avatar

This is so beautiful, I love the musings on magic and this sense of curiosity and intimacy in your letters to each other. It reminds me of writing to pen friends as a child. Thank you both xxx

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Thank you so much Lauren! It’s been a joy to write to Maia and I am intrigued to discover where this conversation will take us... 💫✉️

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Alva Rosenlund's avatar

I love fog and the silence and mysteries it brings. I'm always tempted to walk into it and just....disappear. Gone into a different world entirely.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Yes! I feel that too. The urge to melt away...

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Adrianne Armstrong's avatar

Magic and creativity are interwoven, a tapestry of wonder.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

I love this definition 💫

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Adrianne Armstrong's avatar

Awww yay!

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Cat Crawford's avatar

This is such a stunning idea! It feels like reading a correspondence in a Jane Austen novel and it’s so comforting.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Ooh I love that! Thrilled that you think so.

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Maia Toll's avatar

Ummmm.... wow. If we can give some Jane Austin vibes, I think we’re on the right track.

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Kerani Arpaia's avatar

I can already tell that reading these letters is going to be one of my highlights on substack. What beautiful, reflective conversation. Magic is such a fluid thing and I can't wait to read more of your thoughts on it.

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Fluid, yes, so true. Thank you for reading. 💫

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Maia Toll's avatar

Thanks so much for following along.... we’ll see where the magic leads!

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Rebekah Penfield's avatar

I’m excited to read this series! What a great idea!

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Laura Pashby's avatar

Thank you Rebekah!

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