The World Needs Your Super-Power

Posted on April 04, 2022 by Carolyn Smith, One of Thousands of Relationship Coaches on Noomii.

Create a life so you don’t need a vacation… Live life well…. Make a better world… I’ve been using simplistic catch-all phrases to keep my posts crisp and themed in a direction that I hope concisely says to you “You can identify and use your gifts to engage with and change and enjoy the world around you on every level that matters, and then crawl into bed and sleep well at night.”

But simplistic feel-good comments sometimes need their underbelly exposed, and so I’m sharing this blog with a real news story that in some way keeps me up at night, and in other ways, pushed me towards my own well-lived life. So while I champion you to shine and share your gifts, I include this news link today about 545 children who remain “jailed” by a modern, 1st world government ripped from their families, and vilified.

How can we sleep at night?

I pay deep respect to the people who have found a way to fight these migrant child prisons in person every day. I pay deep respect to a colleague Alexa who flew to the southern border to stand “in the breach” and risk arrest to protest this evil. I feel tears rising even now as I feel hopelessly inadequate to rip the walls down, to comfort a teenager with a broken and bitter heart or a toddler who has no recollection of her parents. My fingers would bleed if I could rip these walls down without being shot and jailed myself. How deep is the agony caused by this government in these children, their families, their communities – which means all our communities as we imagine with terror being in their shoes. Our culture just can’t be healthy with this going on – we are broken hearted even if we haven’t recognized what is happening, and it shows up as we click off the news, flip past stories, turn to “self-care” and “quality time” with loved ones and familiar things. We inadequately anesthetize ourselves from pain that we are unable to put a finger on or address.

These kids crammed in these detention centres are one of my chosen pains to name every day and draw from for fierce and focused energy. What is yours?

What is yours? The Climate Crisis. Poverty in your community. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children. Domestic violence. Clean Water. Animal welfare. Food Justice. Plastics. Finding a job that lets you raise your kids. Dealing with toxic people. Loneliness. Disconnect from your family. LGBTQ2SAI marginalization. Racial injustice. Indigenous inequality. White Supremacy. Mental health. Corruption. Struggling to run a good business? Shall we keep going?

This list has the real capacity to overwhelm me and keep me up at night. It demands my heart and my prayers and my wild worries. Sorry-not-sorry if I have exposed the underbelly we struggle to keep contained. So I share these longer statements as reassurance and direction:

“I cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good I can do.” – Jana Stanfield

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”― Margaret Mead

You can’t fix everything and no one asked you to.

I can’t fix everything, so I picked a couple: these kids to pray about, and all the kids/teens around me, and the climate crisis to buy us time so we can sort out the other things. It’s not easy to focus in on your issues AND find peace consistently, but as you learn, it becomes more obvious. Get clear about what values drive you in the best directions, and name the sneaky saboteur voices that hold you back, and polish the gifts you have to share.

If you had super powers, what would you fix? First, second, third, and why?

What if I granted you your own super power? What if it gave you fierce courage and conviction? And what if it was inside you longing to spring up? There it is already… Right there !

Your kids, your neighbours, your community all wonder how to use their own longings for good in the world, and you, me, each one of us that steps up and leans in will light the way for others.

Tell me what breaks your heart, and what gives you hope! No more overwhelm paralysis that keeps you from engaging on that one thing where YOU can make a difference. Channel your energy to living wholeheartedly, trusting others to do their part, showing up fully- at work, with your kids, & your spouse, and see how a live well lived leads to well deserved relief, flourishing possibilities, and ripples out that make a difference. Take a vacation if you want to, but you won’t need it.

I’ll help you. We’re in this together, stepping into our power… and opening those cages…. And healing the world.

Dream big, right?

Peace,

Carolyn