The other day my eldest son asked me at dinner, “if you could choose to have one super power what would it be?” At once my mind was flooded with the possibilities which were quickly erased by the impossibility of it all.  I tried to let my imagination soar.  I took my time trying to think of just the “right” super power to have.

Super heroes are of course suppose to help people, and I like to think of myself as helping people in the work that I do.  So how could I supersize this into a super power type thing?

Of course my son’s imagination was off thinking of lasers coming out of wrists and so on.  For kids having power is a big thing not to be taken lightly.  It must be extravagant after all as they generally don’t feel like they have a lot of “power” from day-to-day (but that is another blog post perhaps I will share over at offbeatfamily.com on another day)

Then my youngest son came up with a brilliant catch-all super power “the power to make more super powers”.

The Power to make more super powers.

“That’s it!”  I said to myself not wanting him to think that I had “stolen” his idea lest he insist I think of my own.  He captured what I was trying to conceptualize in what I strive to do, what I am passionate helping others with. Only with a twist, an adjustment if you will; the power to uncover more super powers, to unlock the powers within that we ALL have but don’t necessarily recognize.  So my power as I imagine it, would not be to “make” super powers but rather it is to help others uncover theirs.

This is what I do.  I don’t give others the power, I help them see that it is there already for the taking. 

It’s funny when I think back to the work that I have done, the children figure it out.  In the end they have the understanding that they know what they need to do and I support them in this by believing in them and allowing them to get where they need to go by holding the space for them, giving them the room to grow.

However, the adults I have worked with, both parents and my workshop participants, are much more removed from this insight.  They are more likely to ask for the answers.  “Tell us what to do!” They want to know.

Somewhere along the way they have lost that connection to their inner power.  What they need is not the answers.  What they need is the key to the storehouse which houses the answers.

I am not the key.

But I can guide them to it.  Creative expression is the key.  By allowing ourselves to express fully, without judgment, our inner most stirrings no matter how silly, no matter how scary, we can face anything. When we allow the process to unfold without expectation of outcome or product we unleash our own freedom.

These are my Super Powers:

knowing that we each have what it takes inside to reach where we want to go.

trusting that every one of us can access this power.

being able to sit with the in between times when it seems like nothing is happening but in reality major shifts are happening.

If you could choose to have only one super power what would it be?

What is your super power?

Just 2 1/2 weeks left until my Painting With Your Muse workshop! (And for those of you not in the Toronto area YES I will be offering this as an e-course in late June).