If you know me, you know I’m obsessed with Harry Potter. I know it’s not uncommon or anything, but seriously, obsessed. Since I was eleven. Dressed up for book releases, speculated plot twists on fan sites, gobbled up the whole 607 page finale in under 24 hours, obsessed.
I’m always caught somewhere between hoping that J.K. Rowling is a witch that outed her very real magical community and hoping it’s not because if it were real I’m nothing but a muggle. (Yes, there is shame in that. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.)
Harry is my homeboy. We grew up together. And although I can’t exactly relate to being an emotionally-abused magic British orphan-boy who is charged with saving the world one Horcrux at a time…I find him so darn relatable.
I recently reread the Sorcerer’s Stone (for the who knows what time), and I happened upon on of my favorite scenes from the series. Young Harry finds himself standing in front of the Mirror of Erised. A mirror that shows not a person’s reflection, but their heart’s greatest desire. In the mirror, Harry sees his deceased family.
And he can’t stop starring. Because, who could?
The mark of a brilliant author, J.K. Rowling leaves everyone who reads this passage wondering, “What would I see in the mirror?”
I have no doubt what I would’ve seen a little over a year ago. It would’ve been me, standing next to Michael, with a big fat pregnant belly. And then when I was pregnant, it would’ve been me, standing next to Michael with a perfect little baby in my arms. And now…
It’s so easy, I think, to get what you’ve always wanted but to be so fixated on “the next thing” that you forget that your heart’s greatest desire already came true. We forget to slow down and enjoy what we already have.
“The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror”-Albus Dumbledor.
I don’t need the mirror of Erised, because I honestly think I would see my family and myself as we are in any old mirror. Happy, healthy, and together. Call me the happiest man on earth, I guess.
