Into The Magic Shop

"Into The Magic Shop" written by James R Doty is a guidebook for personal growth. This book tells the story of a hopeless young boy Jim who loves magic. Jim lives with his alcoholic father and depressed mother and grows up without parental love. One day, he enters a magic shop and meets a kind woman named Ruth who takes him in and teaches him the most powerful magic which are lessons of compassion, mindfulness, calming yourself, manifestation, opening your heart, etc. This magic shop becomes his comfort place & saves him. Her magic allows him to decide for himself who he wants to be rather than letting those around him define his identity and worth. Ruth's tips to him are given at the end of each chapter for us readers to follow it. 

As Jim grows up, he drifts away from the lessons he learnt and becomes a egotistical neurosurgeon. We get to see all the good and ugly parts of him and learn how important empathy and compassion is in life. 

Some of my favorite quotes from this amazing book are as below:

"I pretended I was lucky because I didn’t have anyone to bother me—to tell me to do my homework, wake me up for school, or tell me what to wear. But I was only pretending. Teenagers crave freedom, but only if they’re standing on a base that is stable and secure."

“When our hearts are wounded that’s when they open. We grow through pain. We grow through difficult situations. That’s why you have to embrace each and every difficult thing in your life. I feel sorry for people who have no problems. Who never have to go through anything difficult. They miss out on the gift. They miss out on the magic.”

"We can die a thousand times in this lifetime, and that is one of the greatest gifts of being alive."

Ruth also teaches Jim the intelligence of the heart and the unique connection between brain and heart. 

"The mind wants to divide and keep us separate. It will teach us to compare ourselves, to differentiate ourselves, to get what’s ours because there is only so much to go around. The heart, however, wants to connect us and wants to share. It wants to show us that there are no differences and that ultimately we are all the same. The heart has an intelligence of its own, and if we learn from it we will know that we keep what we have only by giving it away. If we want to be happy, we make others happy. If we want love, we have to give love. If we want joy, we need to make others joyful. If we want forgiveness, we have to forgive. If we want peace, we have to create it in the world around us. If we want our own wounds to be healed, we have to heal others."

“When our brain changes, we change. That is a truth proven by science. But an even greater truth is that when our heart changes, everything changes. And that change is not only in how we see the world but in how the world sees us. And in how the world responds to us.”

"Many misinterpret Darwin by implying that survival of the fittest means the survival of the strongest and most ruthless, when in fact it is survival of the kindest and most cooperative that ensures the survival of a species in the long-term. We evolved to cooperate, to nurture and raise our dependent young, and to thrive together and for the benefit of all."

All Ruth asked the little boy in exchange for the magic was for him to spread that magic to someone else. And he did, in the form of a book to us. And I did, in the form of this blog. I hope you find & spread this magic too!