The Eyes of Hope
Being an Everyday Superhero is challenging.We’re called to action multiple times during the course of a single day.We’re called to action in many different ways.
We hear the call and we respond, no matter what.
This is both challenging and rewarding in equal measure.It’s great to feel true momentum, to live in the jet stream of self-motivation, to face forward with fearlessness and smile at whatever Fate has in store.At the same time, it’s daunting to hold that self-expectation, the constant requirement to evaluate, notice, choose, and act.Being an Everyday Superhero means we’re absolutely tuned in to life, and willing to embrace the deepest truths and deepest challenges inherent in the most banal situations.
Here’s an example: Visiting an elder-care facility.Hardly seems heroic, right? I mean, walking down a white tiled, fluorescent hallway is humble enough. Now add in those sounds, those sights, and especially those smells… If we forget who we are for even a moment, if we forget to put on our mask and cape, if we go in unprepared, it can be a devastating experience, enough to crush the most powerful titan.I know, because it just happened to me.
Have you seen the eyes of hope among the hopeless? There is no escaping that heartbreak, when you’re inside an elder-care facility. These once-vital and productive, once laughing and loving souls now seated in steel and rubber chairs, now neighbors with the eyes of distance glazed, yellow jaundiced and filmy, encasing some beating heart that wants only to stop.
Talk about a call to action. Where do we find the strength to smile with the painful dying loved ones? From what wellspring does that source emerge? Yet it is there, almost unnaturally real, achieved by crossing over the gravel and wire of our fear and repugnance. It is in that moment that an Everyday Superhero takes a faithful breath, drawing power up from the Earth and down from the Heavens. The moment we relax.
Superhero Training has arrived . Call on us. We will answer that call!
The Meeting Guy
051912