Not quite as simple to answer, I guess…

There are things in this world that, even though they have a perfectly good, science-based explanation for why they happen, are still magic. Stick a kernel of corn in some dirt, water it and make sure it gets plenty of sunlight, and within a week or two it begins to sprout. Keep giving it water and sunlight, and by the end of the summer you might just have an ear or two of corn. There are perfectly good explanations, with roots in science, as to why it happens. And yet, there’s still something magical about that.

One summer, a black-and-yellow spider decided the front door (the part we rarely open) would be a great place to build a web. It was a real thing of beauty, absolutely perfect in its construction, perfectly suited to its purpose, to catch bugs for the spider to eat. One day, she was gone, leaving behind a small sac in which were developing spiders, who, very soon, would come to life and build webs of their own. Where do they learn how to do that? They just know. That’s magic.

We adopted a cat that we found running around outside. After she’d been with us a few days, we noticed Judy was pudging out a little. A trip to the vet told us that, we were right, she was with kittens. We had a box that we lined with towels and blankets, and when it was time she got into the box and had five kittens. We didn’t have to do anything: she knew just what she had to do, and did it. About four hours later I looked in on them. She was lying there with each kitten attached to a nipple and the most serene and proud look on her face. Look at what I did! It was magic.

There are thousands upon thousands of examples of things that just happen that are nevertheless magical. Science can explain why they happen, but watching the things happen is magical. True, it’s not the kind of magic they teach at Hogwarts…

But then, who’s to say that kind of magic isn’t possible?