I AM A SUPER HERO

I AM A SUPER HERO

Out for an explore one summer with a dozen children who ranged in age from five to eight years old. A bright day, they wore sunhats with oily sun screen applied all over their little limbs. Each child with so distinct a personality, some ran ahead and then waited panting at the run ahead stop place that I would name as we moved along, others lagged behind, held my hand and talked about their life or asked questions. I can feel that day move within my heart. I can’t remember all of their names but one little girl stands out.

The state park we were in, was a turn of the century military base overlooking a strait. It has dark bunker passage ways and mysterious places to explore. We had all brought wind up flashlights and got them out to enter the black and to some children scary halls and rooms.

For most of the children the mood was of high adventure and excitement but for a couple of the girls it was uncomfortably scary. I was with these girls, four of them huddled around my legs. Then up troops a tiny girl, the youngest of them all. Her name was Jade, a beautiful small boned child from India but there was nothing small about her spirit. I’m in wonder at the intensity of energy in small children. It’s as if all of their adult capacity is now compressed into a fraction of the space than it will eventually occupy.

Jade stepped up in front of us with her flashlight bright and said.
“ You will be safe with me because I- AM- A- SUPER- HERO.” I looked down and took her in, just who she was in that moment. Her confident, unhampered imagination had made her our leader. She, was, a super hero and so we followed her through the dark passages.

It’s always this way. I teach because they teach me. There is a living exchange. They have so much intrinsic wisdom in the way they naturally are and I am their trusted guide into culture.

That, ‘I AM A SUPER HERO’ spoken by the child has served me countless times as a quiet tool. I’m not brave, am afraid of the dark and don’t run ahead but drag along behind others and yet how many times must I lead and teach others to find their own super hero inside.

I learned from Jade that I can call on my childlike imagination to be whoever is needed in the moment and that I have the inner resources to wind up my trusty flashlight until it shines bright into the darkness.
She used her imagination to create a persona to help others through the dark. This is the true super power that she held.

It was also her innocent confidence that transfixed me and went to my soul. She was as she believed herself to be.

To leap beyond my storehouse full of judgements and limits, to take the child’s lead, to use this powerful tool that has brought us Shakespeare and Einstein. The power to pretend and play with our pretend with exuberance and joy. It’s a powerful tool and takes the innocence of the child inside to pull it off but I can just pretend that to.
I now know thanks to Jade, when to step in front of my fears and say: I AM A SUPER HERO.