I just saw the film Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps some of you already know that Alice is my favorite character of all time. I even have a Rabbit Hole in my house—the walk down to my basement is painted as a Rabbit Hole (by the wondrous artist Ellen Fenner). I've been enchanted by the story of Alice in Wonderland for years and years and years. And I’ve been enchanted by enchantment.” Just the very idea of being enchanted enchants me!

It's a type of theme that runs throughout my house—not overtly in that you walk through glitter, but in a subtle type of way. I do an enchanting garden, for example, that's filled with glorious flowers and plants and my summer furniture is painted in magical colors. Color fills my house in every room along with art and books...endless books. I find books enchanting as they allow us to enter the minds and souls of great fiction authors or philosophers or historians or theologians or political thinkers and all the great Sacred literature. I could dwell in their minds for days at a time. That is enchanting to me. That's a journey down the Rabbit Hole—away from ordinary thought. I love to leave ordinary thinking. It's so ordinary. I get bored if I stay in the ordinary mind for too long.

I have so many memories of listening to people chatter on and on about ordinary things, which is okay of course because let's face it, life is filled with all kinds of things. But what does it take for a person to detach from the ordinary in order to dwell in the extraordinary?

What is an extraordinary thought? How do I find one? How do I dwell in the extraordinary? In short: How do I discover a route to enchantment? People inspire me. I wonder all the time about why a person does this or that or I wonder about the wisdom earned through the life of another person, like this man listed as an anonymous Confederate soldier:

I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

— Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier

Enchantment can penetrate to your soul and take you deep into that place of inner dwelling—your Interior Castle—where you have but a minute to gather the fragments of yourself together with the extraordinary thoughts and truths shared by such a profoundly wise soul. Enchantment of the soul is the type that can elevate your senses and renew your capacity to walk back into the ordinary world realizing it’s not really so ordinary. You are the vessel of enchantment. It doesn't come to you—it comes through you. But you have to know what to pour into yourself constantly in order to fall down that mystical Rabbit Hole.

Anyone for tea?